Realtors: SoCal Home Sales Strong in January

Southern California home sales edged up in January for the second straight month, as interest rates continued to take a breather, but still remained below the sales pace of a year ago, the California Association of Realtors reported Thursday.

Closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes in the state totaled a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 241,520 in January, according to the association.

January’s sales pace was up 0.4% on a monthly basis from a revised 240,630 in December and down 45.7% from a year ago, when a revised 444,400 homes were sold on an annualized basis throughout the state.

“Thanks to slightly waning interest rates and tempering home prices, California’s housing market kicked off the new year with another step up and continued to improve in January as buyers gained more confidence in purchasing a home and the affordability outlook improving slightly,” CAR President Jennifer Branchini said in a statement.

“While the monthly sales gains have been nominal over the past two months, the market is moving in the right direction, and more gradual improvements could be coming in the months ahead as the market moves into the spring homebuying season in a few weeks.”

In Los Angeles County, the median sold price of existing single-family homes last month was $778,540, down from $799,670 in December and a slide from $800,960 in January 2022.

Prices of single-family homes in Orange County rose from $1.13 million in December to $1.194 million last month, but still below the median sales price of $1.195 million in January 2022.

The median number of days it took to sell a California single-family home was 33 days in January and 12 days in January 2022, according to CAR.