The number of homes listed for sale in California is on the rise and last month saw the largest jump in more than a year amid rising home prices in the state, according to data from the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.). As shown in Figure 1, new active listings increased by double digits as the spring season for home sales gets underway.
New active listings at the state level increased from a year ago for the third consecutive month by double digits as more sellers listed their homes on the market ahead of the spring home buying season. The jump in new housing supply, along with a modest slowdown in housing demand last month, contributed to an improvement in the overall active listings.
California home prices keep moving
Despite increase in inventory, California home prices continued to increase. Figure 2 shows YTY% (Year to Year%) change for March-2024 compared to March-2023 for home prices across California. The single family prices surged 6% from March-2023 to March 2024, where as condo-townhomes increased 2.3%.
When looking at Bay area market homes prices increased in all counties except Napa. Many counties such as Alameda, Santa Clara, San Mateo showed two digit growth
The real estate market remains competitive
The median number of days it took to sell a single-family home decreased to 19 days in March-2024 from 24 days in March 2023. Condo and townhomes sales also showed reduction in time on market.
Most Bay area counties recorded lower time to sale in March-2024 as compared to March-2023. Some of these such as Alameda and Santa Clara counties had the highest home price increased. In three remaining counties (Marin, Napa, and Solano) the time to sale even though dropped compared to prior month but it was still higher than March-2023.
It is a great to sale your home
“It’s a great time to sell a home in California,” Jordan Levine, C.A.R.’s chief economist told Newsweek. “About half the homes are now selling above list price once again and prices themselves are rising.” Sellers are also seeing their homes spend less time on the market, the data showed.
Sales were down on a monthly basis by about 8 percent and by 4 percent compared to a year ago, largely due to elevated mortgage rates that are keeping sellers locked into their low home loans. This constricted supply is why prices for homes in the state are high, as competition for available homes has escalated. The median home price in California is at its highest level in seven months, jumping nearly 8 percent to about $855,000 in March compared to the same time a year ago. From February, prices were up 6 percent.
But home sales in California were down on a monthly basis by about 8 percent and from a year ago declined more than 4 percent. Levine said this was partly due to elevated mortgage rates that are keeping sellers locked into their low home loans, which in turn has depressed the supply of available homes. “That has caused inventory to really dry up,” he said. “We have fewer homes available for sale on the market now than we did in the spring of 2020, when the economy was totally locked down.
Mortgage rates have ticked up to about 7 percent in recent weeks, adding to the affordability challenge for homebuyers. On Wednesday, the Mortgage News Daily‘s tracker showed that rates had ticked down to 7.41 percent after going up to 7.5 percent the previous day in what was the highest level since November.
He added: “You can’t overstate the importance of this inventory shortage because again, even with rates that are at 7 1/2 percent, we still have more demand than supply, which is again why those prices are still going up.”
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