Record breaking home prices in LA

Home prices in LA County surged to $635,000 in July, shattering an all-time record for the second month in a row.

The county’s median sale price rose 2.8 percent since June and a full 5 percent since July 2018, a new report from real estate data tracker CoreLogic shows. That was the largest yearly gain since November.

CoreLogic analyst Andrew LePage says in a report that the bump in prices may be due in part to falling mortgage interest rates, which have reduced monthly costs for homebuyers who aren’t making all-cash purchases.

Across all of Southern California, sale prices rose 2 percent year over year. But LePage points out that average mortgage payments dropped 7 percent in the same time period due to declining interest rates.

In Los Angeles, home price increases continue to be accompanied by sluggish sales. Last month, 6,965 homes sold countywide—exactly one fewer than in July 2018, despite the fact that this year the month had one additional business day for sales to process.

Across all of Southern California, sales during the month were 2.9 percent below average (excluding the bubble years leading up to the 2008 Great Recession).

In LA County, median sale prices eclipsed the $600,000 mark for the first time in May 2018. LePage says that how high home values grow will probably be determined by a combination of “mortgage rates, buyer confidence, job and income growth, and inventory levels.”

Though many economists expected mortgage interest rates to climb in 2019, they’ve instead dropped, creating a lending environment favorable to buyers—but also encouraging price growth. LA’s median sale price in July was a full $17,000 higher than a month before.

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