California house sales plunged 11.5% in March from February levels, the first double-digit, month-to-month drop in more than nine years and the largest since August 2007, the California Association of Realtors reported Thursday, April 15.
Median house prices, however, held their own with a statewide gain of 8.3% from March 2019 levels, rising to just over $612,000.
CAR’s report was the first showing how statewide stay–at–home orders and the coronavirus outbreak impacted the housing market as home viewings were being curtailed.
And since the outbreak didn’t fully hit the local economy until the middle of the month, April sales and price figures are likely to show even deeper declines.
In Southern California, the impact was not quite as severe last month as in the state as a whole.
March sales of existing single-family houses increased 20% from February in the Los Angeles metro area and dropped 0.1% from year-ago levels, state Realtor figures show.
Though small, that’s the first year-over-year sales decrease in seven months. By comparison, L.A. metro area sales jumped 13.7% from the year before in February.
The region’s median house price — or price at the midpoint of all sales — was $556,250 in March, up 7.6% from a year ago.
The Los Angeles metro area includes L.A., Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.
Gains in house sales for individual counties, which had been at or near double digits in February, also did an about-face in March, CAR figures show.
For example, L.A. County had a sales decline of 2.9% from the year before, vs. a 9.3% annual increase in February.
Orange County posted a 1.6% sales gain, compared with 34.7% increase in February. Riverside County also had a net increase in house sales of 4.5% in March, compared with 11.3% the month before.
In San Bernardino County, sales fell 3.7%, compared with a 9.6% gain in February.
“The relatively moderate sales decrease that occurred in March is only a prelude to what we’ll see in April and May because sales were still modestly strong during the first two weeks of March before stay-in-place orders were implemented throughout the state,” said CAR President Jeanne Radsick of Bakersfield.
Pending sales, which is a better reflection of the current market conditions, dropped nearly 25 percent, Radsick said.
That, said Radsick, suggests “the decline could extend beyond the next couple of months, depending on the duration of the pandemic and the lockdown.”
Median house prices all increased from year-before levels in Southern California, with records even reached in Orange and Riverside counties.
Orange County’s median of $882,000 and Riverside County’s median of $435,000 both were all-time highs in records dating back to 1991.
The median price of a Los Angeles County house was $567,910 last month, up 8.1% year over year. The San Bernardino County median was $316,000, up 2%.
All major regions in the state experienced a sales decrease from last year, with the biggest decline in the Bay Area, where sales fell 12.1% year over year.
“While the median home price continued to record a strong gain in March, most, if not all, of the closed sales were negotiated in mid- to late-February, prior to the COVID-19 outbreak,” said CAR Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young.
“Still, the fast deterioration of the economy, the steep decline of the financial market and record-setting job losses have not been factored into March’s closed sales, but will become obvious in coming months,” she said.
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Realtors report an 11.5% drop in California house sales as coronavirus outbreak jolts market - OCRegister
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