SoCal Home Sales Slump

In September 2018, Southern California's new and existing home sales fell to its slowest monthly pace in more than a decade.

According to CoreLogic, sales of SoCal homes and condos decreased 18 percent, matching the pace of sales in September 2007, and marks the largest annual decrease for any month in nearly eight years, and double the decrease in August 2018. CNBC reports that sales went down 22 percent month-over-month in September, 12 percent higher than the typical drop from August. The median price of homes sold in SoCal in September was $505,000, up 3.6 percent annually.

"The double whammy of higher prices and rising mortgage rates has priced out some would-be buyers and prompted others to take a wait-and-see stance," said Andrew LePage, a CoreLogic analyst, in the release. "There was one caveat to last month's sharp annual sales decline — this September had one less business day for recording transactions. Adjusting for that, the year-over-year decline would be about 13 percent, still the largest in four years."

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