Author: Rodeo Realty Media Team

California home prices and sales show signs of normalizing in July 

The California Association of Realtors reported that existing home sales totaled 428,980 on a seasonally adjusted annualized rate in July, down 2% from the number of sales last July.

The median price paid for an existing home in July was $811,170, up 21.7% from last July when the median price was $666,320. While a 21.7% year-over-year increase in the median price would normally be a historic rise, it followed three straight months of year-over-year increases of 30% or more. There had never been a 30% year-over-year increase in the median price prior to April.

The California Association of Realtors tracks inventory levels based on how many months it would take to sell the active listings in all MLS systems at the current sales level. There was a 1.9 month supply of homes for sale in July, up from a 1.7 month supply in June and down from a 2.7 month supply of homes for sale last July. Active listings are beginning to climb, and are at the highest level since last October.

Stock markets closed the week at or near record highs – The week began with the largest one day point drop since October marking five straight days of declines. This was due to fears of rising COVID cases. It has become evident that COVID is not behind us as we had hoped. On Tuesday calming words by the Fed, and another round of corporate profit releases turned markets positive. By week’s end markets had made up all of their loses and returned to record high levels. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the week at 35,061.55, up 1.1% from 34,687.85 last week. It is up 14.4% year-to-date. The S&P 500 closed the week at 4,411.79, up 2.0% from 4,327.16 last week. It is up 17.5% year-to-date. The NASDAQ closed the week at 14,836.99, up 2.9% from 14,427.24 last week. It is up 15% year-to-date.

U.S. Treasury bond yields – The 10-year treasury bond closed the week yielding 1.30%, almost unchanged from 1.31% last week. The 30-year treasury bond yield ended the week at 1.92%, almost unchanged from 1.93% last week. We watch bond yields because mortgage rates often follow treasury bond yields.

Mortgage rates – The July 22, 2021, Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Survey reported mortgage rates for the most popular loan products as follows: The 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 2.78%, down from 2.88% last week. The 15-year fixed was 2.17%, down from 2.22% last week. The 5-year ARM was 2.49%, almost unchanged from 2.47% last week.

June U.S. home sales – The National Association of Realtors reported that existing-home sales jumped 22.9% from the number of homes sold last June. The median price paid for a home in May was $363,300, up 23.4% from last June’s median price of $294,400. May marked the 112th straight months of year-over-year increases in the median price. The unsold inventory level is at a 2.6-month supply, down from a 3.9-month supply one year ago. Total housing inventory was 3.3% higher in June than the number of homes for sale in May, but down 18.8% from the number of homes for sale one year ago. First time buyers accounted for 31% of all purchases. Second-home and investor purchases accounted for 17% of all homes sold. Foreclosures and short sales accounted for less than 1% of all homes sold. All cash purchases accounted for 23% of all transactions.

Stock markets ended the week slightly lower – Stock markets had a relatively quiet week. Second quarter corporate profits have come in strong which was expected. Unfortunately, investors sold off stocks Friday on fears of rising COVID cases. That brought stock markets down at the close of the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the week at 34,687.85, down 0.5% from 34,870.16 last week. It is up 13.2% year-to-date. The S&P 500 closed the week at 4,327.16, down 0.7% from 4,369.55 last week. It is up 15.5% year-to-date. The NASDAQ closed the week at 14,427.24, down 1.9% from 14,701.92 last week. It is up 12% year-to-date.

U.S. Treasury bond yields – The 10-year treasury bond closed the week yielding 1.31%, down from 1.37% last week. The 30-year treasury bond yield ended the week at 1.93%, down from 1.99% last week. We watch bond yields because mortgage rates often follow treasury bond yields.

Mortgage rates – The July 15, 2021, Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Survey reported mortgage rates for the most popular loan products as follows: The 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 2.88%, down slightly from 2.90% last week. The 15-year fixed was 2.22%, almost unchanged from 2.20% last week. The 5-year ARM was 2.47%, down from 2.52% last week.

California home prices continue to rise at record pace in June – The California Association of Realtors reported that existing home sales totaled 436,000 on a seasonally adjusted annualized rate in June. That marked a year-over-year increase of 28% in the number of sales last June. The median price paid for an existing home in June was $819,630, up from May’s $818,260 median price. Year-over-year the median price increased 30.9% from last June when the median price was $588,070. June marked a third straight month of year-over-year gains of over 30% in the median price. The California Association of Realtors tracks inventory levels based on how many months it would take to sell the active listings in all MLS systems at the current sales level. There was a 1.7 month supply of homes for sale in June, down from a 2.7 month supply of homes for sale last June. Active listings are beginning to climb, and are at the highest level since last October.

Below are median price and sales data by county.

California home prices continue to rise at record pace in June

The California Association of Realtors reported that existing home sales totaled 436,000 on a seasonally adjusted annualized rate in June. That marked a year-over-year increase of 28% in the number of sales last June.

The median price paid for an existing home in June was $819,630, up from May’s $818,260 median price. Year-over-year the median price increased 30.9% from last June when the median price was $588,070. June marked a third straight month of year-over-year gains of over 30% in the median price.

The California Association of Realtors tracks inventory levels based on how many months it would take to sell the active listings in all MLS systems at the current sales level. There was a 1.7 month supply of homes for sale in June, down from a 2.7 month supply of homes for sale last June. Active listings are beginning to climb, and are at the highest level since last October.

Below are median price and sales data by county.

Stocks slightly higher after turbulent week – Stocks markets exhibited huge swings this week. Thursday markets plunged over one percent as investors feared that thespike in new COVID Delta variant cases would slow the progress of the world returning to normalcy after the pandemic. A decision by Japan not to allow fans at the summer Olympics was also announced Thursday.  Economic data released Thursday suggesting that shortages in supplies and labor could be slowing the international economy. Also on Thursday the U.S. new unemployment claims rose to 373,000  which was higher than expected. On Friday markets rose over one percent after early second quarter corporate earnings began to be released. Companies had record profits in the second quarter of 2021. By days end many companies and experts conceded that those earnings were compared to one year ago when sales were anemic due to the pandemic. Compared to the second quarter of 2019, 2021 figures were still strong but nowhere near the year-over-year gains when compared to profit levels at the worst time of the pandemic.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the week at 34,870.16, up 0.2% from 34,786.35 last week. It is up 13.7% year-to-date. The S&P 500 closed the week at 4,369.55, up 0.4% from 4,353.54 last week. It is up 16.2%  year-to-date. The NASDAQ closed the week at 14,701.92, up 0.4%, from 14,639.33 last week. It is up 14.0% year-to-date.

U.S. Treasury bond yields – The 10-year treasury bond closed the week yielding 1.37%, down from 1.44% last week. The 30-year treasury bond yield ended the week at 1.99%, down from 2.06% last week. We watch bond yields because mortgage rates often follow treasury bond yields.

Mortgage rates – The July 8, 2021, Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Survey reported mortgage rates for the most popular loan products as follows: The 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 2.90%, down from 2.98% last week. The 15-year fixed was 2.20%, down from 2.26% last week. The 5-year ARM was 2.52%, unchanged from 2.53% last week.

Housing data is released by the California Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors around the third week of the month for the previous month. Local market data for June is available on my website now. Search market reports. Those results again show rising sales, listings, and double digit price increases. Check my website to view your city, or zip code. If the state and national numbers are anywhere like our area I’d expect to see another month of record results when June sales are released. That will be the end of next week or the first of the following week. Hopefully we will have some of those numbers released before next weeks report.

U.S. employers added 850,000 jobs in June – The Department of Labor and Statics reported that 850,000 new jobs were added in June. That was a much higher than the 559,000 new jobs added in May, and the most jobs added in 10 months. The unemployment rate was 5.9% in June, up from 5.8% in May, as more workers entered the workforce.

Stock markets up again this week – Stocks markets rose again this week, and the S&P closed the week at another record high. The June jobs report showed that the jobs recovery from pandemic related layoffs is strong. Employer’s added jobs at the fastest pace in 10 months. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the week at 34,786.35, up 1.0% from 34,433.84 last week. It is up 13.6% year-to-date. The S&P 500 closed the week at 4,352.54, up 1.7% from 4,280.70 last week. It is up 15.9% year-to-date. The NASDAQ closed the week at 14,639.33, up 1.9%, from 14,360.49 last week. It is up 13.5% year-to-date.

U.S. Treasury bond yields – The 10-year treasury bond closed the week yielding 1.44%, down from 1.54% last week. The 30-year treasury bond yield ended the week at 2.05%, down from 2.16% last week. We watch bond yields because mortgage rates often follow treasury bond yields.

Mortgage rates – The July 1, 2021, Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Survey reported mortgage rates for the most popular loan products as follows: The 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 2.98%, down from 3.02% last week. The 15-year fixed was 2.26%, down from 2.34% last week. The 5-year ARM was 2.53%, unchanged from 2.53% last week.

Real Trends revealed 2021’s The Thousand list of top-producing agents nationwide.

Featured in the Wall Street Journal, the 17th annual The Thousand list America’s top 1,000 real estate sales professionals. Designees are recognized as the top one-tenth of one percent of more than 1.4 million licensed Realtors® nationwide.

READ THE REAL TRENDS THE THOUSAND LIST, HERE.
About Real Trends The Thousand List

REAL Trends The Thousand honors America’s elite real estate agents and their companies and is compiled and analyzed by REAL Trends with a special ad section published in The Wall Street Journal and is not affiliated with The Wall Street Journal news department.

Real estate data company DQNews (formerly CoreLogic/DataQuick) reported that May existing home sales in their six county Southern California region Jumped over 100% from the number of sales last May. That surge is mostly related to a near stoppage in sales last May at the start of the pandemic.

The median price jumped 24.7% in the six county region. That marked the largest year-over-year median price ever recorded.

The county by county numbers were as follows: Los Angeles County recorded a 25% increase in the median price. Orange County recorded a 19.3% increase in the median price. San Bernardino County recorded a 16.8% increase in the median price. Riverside County recorded a 22.5% increase in the median price. Ventura County recorded a 20.9% increase in the median price. San Diego County recorded a 22.9% increase in the median price.

The National Association of Realtors reported that existing home sales jumped 44.6% from the number of homes sold last May. Existing home sales include all single family, condominium, co-op, and townhomes.

The median price paid for a home in May was $350,300, up 23.6% from last May’s median price of $283,500. There are now 111 straight months of year-over-year increases in the median price.

The unsold inventory level is at a 2.5-month supply, down from a 4.6-month supply one year ago. Inventory was up slightly month-over-month from April when there was a 2.4 month supply. The supply of homes is simply the number of sales in the month divided by the number of homes for sale at the end of the month.

First time buyers accounted for 31% of all purchases. Second-home and investor purchases accounted for 17% of all homes sold. Foreclosures and short sales accounted for less than 1% of all homes sold. All cash purchases accounted for 23% of all transactions.