The California Association of Realtors announced that existing, single-family home sales in July totaled 437,890 in July on a seasonally adjusted annualized rate. That marked a staggering month-over-month increase of 28.8% from the number of sales in June. Year-over-year sales were up 6.6% from July 2019.
July 2019 had a pretty healthy sales rate, so a 6.6% increase is remarkable considering that we are in the middle of a pandemic. The state-wide median price also hit a record high. It was $666,320. That marked a 6.4% increase month-over-month from June, and a 9.6% increase year-over-year from July 2019. The median price is the point at which one half the homes sell for more and one half sell for less. Historic low interest rates with 30-year fixed at or under 3% combined with historically tight inventory levels have pushed prices up. The unsold inventory index in July dropped to a 2.1-month supply of housing from a 3.2-month supply one year ago. The index indicates the number of months it would take to sell the supply of homes on the market at the current rate of sales. The graph below indicates the number of sales and median prices for counties in Southern California. The graph below indicates results from Southern California by county.
