A new housing report shows Southern California home prices continued to rise in June, thanks to low mortgage rates and a constrained supply of homes for sale.
Los Angeles County single-family home sellers experienced an average gain of 4% over prices in June 2019, a same-home sales comparison by CoreLogic showed Tuesday, Aug. 4.
L.A. County house appreciation was slightly smaller than in the previous four months.
Attached homes — like condos and townhomes — had an appreciation rate of 3.3% in June.
In Orange County, house prices rose 2.6%, also the smallest appreciation rate in four months.
Appreciation was more robust in the Inland Empire, with house prices up 5%, the biggest gain for that region since November 2018.
The numbers confirm earlier reports by CoreLogic/DQ News and the California Association of Realtors showing median home prices holding up through the pandemic, even as sales plummeted.
Unlike median price indexes, the CoreLogic Home Price Index compares sales prices for each house sold with the price of its last sale to determine annual and monthly price changes. The index tracks prices in more than 900 U.S. metro areas.
Nationally, U.S. house prices rose 4.9% in June, the index showed and increased 1% from May, the biggest May-to-June increase in seven years.
“Mortgage rates hit record lows this spring, which created affordability for home buyers,” CoreLogic chief Economist Frank Nothaft said in a statement. “First-time buyers, and millennials in particular, have jumped at the opportunity to achieve homeownership.”
The impact of high unemployment rates are expected to weaken home prices in the next year, CoreLogic forecast.
Price drops are expected in areas where reliance on tourism and other jobs affected by the pandemic. For example, Las Vegas is forecast to see prices fall 11.3% by next June. San Diego, however, is projected to see prices increase 4.2% over the next year as homes for sale remain scarce.
Dailynews.com
