California Association of Realtors has officially published results from a new report, which reveals that home sales in the state ended 2024 with its largest yearly increase since June 2021.
Going by the available details, closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes were found to settle around a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 268,180 during December. More on that would reveal how the rate of sales, during December, was essentially unchanged from the 267,800 homes sold in November.
Having said so, it was up by almost 19.8 percent from a year ago, when a revised 223,940 homes were sold on an annualized basis.
Markedly enough, even with double-digit annual growth rate, sales of existing single-family homes remained below the pre-Covid norm of 400,000 units. Talk about the reason behind this uptick, it was largely because of low-base effects. You see, we get to say so because home sales during December 2023 dropped to their lowest level since late 2007.
“California’s housing market ended the year with a positive note with home sales reaching the highest level in five months,” said Heather Ozur, a Palm Springs REALTOR® and President at California Association of Realtors. “With mortgage rates remaining at their highest level since early July and devastating wildfires taking a toll on the Southern California housing market, we’ll likely have a slow start for the year, but demand should pick up once we enter the spring homebuying season.”
Moving on, the statewide median price, during December, saw a modest monthly uptick and continued to climb on a year-over-year basis for the 18th straight month. To be more specific, December median price ticked up 1.0 percent from $852,880 in November, clocking $861,020 in December. The stated difference widens to almost 5.0 percent from a revised $819,820 in December 2023.
Then, there is the higher-priced market segment, where sales continued to have an effect on the overall price growth. However, the impact on statewide median price growth has been found to shrink in recent months. Now, the impact on statewide median price gain has moderated in recent months, but at the same time, we saw a solid increase in high-end home sales during December.
All in all, the $1 million-and-higher price segment maintained a double-digit gain of 28.7 percent last month, whereas on the other hand, sales in the sub-$500,000 market dipped by 0.4 percent in December.
Among other things, we ought to mention how at the regional level home sales, across all major regions, improved from a year ago, and they did so by more than five percent. In fact, four out of five regions in California would go on to experience an increase from their year-ago levels by double digits.
For instance, Central Coast region posted the biggest year-over-year jump last month with a 20.5 percent sales surge, followed by Southern California (16.3 percent), the Central Valley (15.1 percent), and the San Francisco Bay Area (14.6 percent).
It must also be acknowledged that nearly 42 out of 53 counties tracked by C.A.R. recorded a sales increase from a year ago, with 34 of them surging by more than 10 percent on a year-over-year basis. Here, Mendocino (76.0 percent) posted the biggest yearly sales gain, followed by Del Norte (50.0 percent) and Napa (49 percent).
On the flipside, home sales decreased from last year in 10 counties, each one experiencing a fall of more than 10 percent. A closer look would reveal how Lassen (-59.1 percent) experienced the sharpest decline in December, followed by Plumas (-47.1 percent) and Kings (-32.4 percent).
“As projected, both sales and price activity were up modestly in 2024 as California wrapped up the year with a double-digit sales gain over last December,” said Jordan Levine, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist California Association of Realtors. “While the housing market is expected to improve further in 2025, stickier-than-expected inflation, the ongoing insurance crisis, and policy changes under the new White House administration are some of the hurdles that could present challenges for the market in the upcoming year.”
