Existing, single-family home sales in California totaled 400,500 in February on a seasonally adjusted annualized rate, down 4.7% from January but still up 4.9% from February 2016, the California Association of Realtors said Wednesday. On another note, CAR noted that February 2016’s sales pace was the slowest for the entire year.
C.A.R. also dais February’s statewide median home price was $478,790, down 2.2% from January but up 7.6% from February 2016. Despite the back-to-back monthly price decline, February’s median price still registered a 7.6% increase from the revised $444,780 recorded a year ago. The annual gain was the largest year-over-year increase since January 2016 and was higher than the three-month average of 4.5% prior to February 2016.
“Despite a strong sales start for the year, the housing supply shortage in California continues to cast doubt on whether the sales momentum can be carried forward into the spring homebuying season,” said C.A.R. Senior Vice President and Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young. “The number of active listings has been on a downward trend for the past 20 months and has shown no signs of improvement. As we move into the spring homebuying season, we should see a marginal increase in listings, which will be offset by a pickup in sales. The inventory level is not likely to get better in the upcoming months.”
C.A.R. also reported:
- C.A.R.’s Unsold Inventory Index, which measures the number of months needed to sell the supply of homes on the market at the current sales rate, edged up to 4.0 months in February from 3.7 months in January. The index stood at 4.7 months in February 2016.
- New statewide active listings continued to decline, falling 13.9% from a year ago. The year-over-year decline was the largest since May 2013.
- The median number of days it took to sell a single-family home dropped from 37.4 days in January to 33.4 days in February and was down from 41.5 days in February 2016.
- C.A.R.’s sales-to-list price ratio was 98.6% of listing prices statewide in February, 98.1 percent in January and 98.2% in February 2016.
- The average price per square foot for an existing, single-family home statewide was $241 in February, $239 in January, and $223 in February 2016.
