Home Sales, Prices Jumped in Los Angeles County

LOS ANGELES, CA -- The median price of a home in Los Angeles County jumped by 7.1 percent in January, compared with the same month a year earlier, while the number of homes sold rose by 2.6 percent, a real estate information service announced Monday.

According to CoreLogic, the median price of a Los Angeles County home was $525,000 last month, up from $490,000 in January 2016. A total of 5,117 homes were sold in the county, up from 5,044 during the same month the previous year.

In Orange County, the median price was $635,000 last month, up 2.6 percent from $619,000 in January 2016. The number of homes sold rose by 3.1 percent, from 2,280 in January 2016 to 2,351 last month.

A total of 15,422 new and resale houses and condos changed hands in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties last month, according to CoreLogic. That was down 24.6 percent from 20,458 in December but up 5.4 percent from 14,633 in January 2016.

The median price of a Southern California home was $455,000 in January, down 3.2 percent from $470,000 in December and up 5.3 percent from $432,250 in January 2016.

"Southern California home sales were the highest for a January in four years despite a spike in mortgage interest rates after the November election," said Andrew LePage, research analyst with CoreLogic. "Many of the homebuyers whose deals were recorded in January would have been out shopping in November and December during a rising-rate environment that might have spurred some to buy sooner than later. There was still a normal, sharp seasonal drop-off in sales between December 2016 and January 2017.

That's partly because some people prefer not to buy or sell during the holidays, which translates into a relatively low number of deals recorded in January and February. Historically, those months are not good indicators of how the market will shape up during the rest of the year."

-- City News Service, photo via Shutterstock