IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
Sales of existing single-family homes in California fell 41.4 percent last month, as the full impact of COVID-19 hit the state’s housing market.
That year-over-year decline brought the state’s housing market to its lowest point since the Great Recession and marked the second consecutive month that home sales were under 300,000 statewide, according to the California Association of Realtors.
“The sharp sales drop in May was the steepest we’ve seen in some time, but there are encouraging signs that show the market is recovering and should continue to improve over the next few months,” said Jeanne Radsick, the association’s 2020 president, said in a statement.
“With pending home sales up a stunning 67 percent in May, buyer demand is on the upswing amid record-low rates that are making monthly mortgage payments $300 less than a year ago.”
Statewide, the median home price was $588,070, down 3.7 percent from May 2019. Sales for the first five months of the year were down nearly 13 percent compared with the first five months of 2019.
In the Inland Empire, sales were down 41.2 percent year-over-year, and the median price – $395,740 – was a 3.1 percent increase from one year earlier, the association reported.
