IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
More than 20,400 houses and condominiums were sold in Southern California in December, up 4.7 percent month-over-month but down nearly three percent compared with December 2015, according to data released Tuesday.
December sales were 15 percent below the December average of 24,067, but there’s an explanation for that seemingly weak number, Irvine-based CoreLogic stated in its monthly report on the jobs market.
“Southern California home sales in December 2016 fell on a year-over-year basis for the first time since last summer, but there’s a caveat,” said Andrew LePage, research analyst with CoreLogic, in a statement. “The number of deals recorded in December 2015 was artificially high, the result of then-new federal mortgage rules that caused delays for many transactions that normally would have closed the prior month.”
December 2015 had one more business day than did December 2016. That, combined with the new mortgage rules, outweighed whatever boost December 2016 sales got from the presidential election, LePage said.
The median price of a home in Southern California in December was $470,000, up 1.1 percent compared with November and up 6.8 percent year-over-year. When adjusted for inflation, that was 16.5 percent below the peak median price of $505,000 that was reached in March, April, May and July of 2007, the report stated.
In the Inland Empire, sales were essentially static in Riverside County and down one percent in San Bernardino County compared with December of 2015. Median prices – $345,750 in Riverside County and $299,000 in San Bernardino County – were up eight and 8.7 percent respectively, according to CoreLogic.
