IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
The Southern California housing market got even hotter in December, as the price of a single-family home reached its highest point in more than eight years.
The median price of a single-family home last month was $443,000, a 6.7 percent year-over-year increase and the highest price recorded in the region since October 2007, when the median price was $445,000, according to data released Tuesday by CoreLogic in Irvine.
Nearly 21,000 single-family homes were sold in Southern California during the last month of 2015, up 9.8 percent compared with December 2014.
That was the largest increase since last July, when sales were up 17.3 percent year-over-year, CoreLogic reported in its monthly report on the Southern California housing industry.
The Inland Empire housing market more or less mirrored the Southern California market during December: year-over-year sales were up 8.3 percent in Riverside County and 11.4 percent in San Bernardino County.
Median prices were $320,000 in Riverside County and $272,000 in San Bernardino County, up 6.7 percent and 6.9 percent compared with December 2014.
Overall, not a single county in Southern California – the Inland Empire plus Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and Ventura counties – recorded a year-over-year drop in sales or median prices in December.
The Southern California housing market is performing so well now that it’s fair to ask whether that performance can be sustained, said Jay Prag, professor of economics and finance at the Drucker School of Management at the Claremont Colleges..
“I’m concerned about the stock market, and I’m concerned about what is happening in China,” Prag said. “Both of those things have to have some impact on our economy.”
Because the Inland Empire is so dominated by the logistics industry and so dependent on foreign imports, the region is especially vulnerable to any economic unrest overseas, especially in China, Prag said.
“I’m more concerned with the Inland Empire economy than I am Southern California’s,” Prag said.
