State housing market continues decline

The demand for housing in California continued to fall in November, as home sales reached their lowest rate in more than 15 years.

The state’s housing market last month also experienced its largest year-over-year sales drop in at least 40 years, mostly because of rising interest rates and concerns about a possible recession, according to the California Realtors Association.

Sales of existing, single-family homes totaled 237,740 in November, a 47.7 percent decline from November 2021, when 454,450 single-family homes that had closed escrow changed hands.

Sales between October and November of this year fell 13.2 percent, the Los Angeles-based association reported.

All of the above numbers are annualized, meaning they take into account seasonal factors that typically influence housing sales.

“As expected, higher borrowing costs, lower demand, and rising uncertainty finally caused prices to moderate for the first time in more than a decade while home sales dropped further,” said Jordan Levine, the association’s chief economist, in a statement.

“With mortgage rates rising at the fastest pace in years, sales and price growth will likely remain on a downward trend in the short term. However, pending sales suggest that the pace of declines should moderate in the coming months.”

California’s median home price – $777,500 – declined for the third straight month, dropping three percent from October. That was a 0.6 percent drop from November 2021, the first year-over-year decline in two and a half years the association reported.