SoCal home sales fall for 10th consecutive month

Sales of new and existing single-family homes and condominiums in Southern California totaled 22,300 in May, according to data.

That was a decline of 2.7 percent compared with May 2018, Irvine-based CoreLogic reported in its monthly assessment of the region’s housing market.

Sales in Southern California – the Inland Empire plus Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and Ventura counties – have fallen for 10 consecutive months year-over-year. May’s sales numbers were the lowest for that month since 2015, when 21,754 homes and condominiums changed hands.

Some good news: sales were up nearly 11 percent between April and May, nearly twice the average between those two months dating back to 1988. However, year-over-year data is considered a better assessment of the market’s condition because it is less susceptible to fluctuations.

The median price of a home last month was $530,000, virtually unchanged from exactly one year earlier.

In the Inland Empire, sales were up 1.6 percent in Riverside County and fell 3.3 percent in San Bernardino County. Median prices – $392,000 in Riverside County and $345,000 in San Bernardino County – were year-over-year increases of 3.3 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively, CoreLogic reported.