For the third month in a row, prospective homebuyers in Los Angeles County faced a median sale price of $575,000 in September, according to real estate tracker CoreLogic. That’s the highest price ever recorded in the area.
On the bright side, after four straight months of record shattering prices, the cost of buying is finally holding steady.
That’s not the case in other parts of Southern California; Orange and San Bernardino counties both saw median prices shoot up more than 3 percent between August and September—a very sizable increase in such a short time. Across all of Southern California, the median sale price rose to $505,000, up from $500,000 the month before.
Still, CoreLogic analyst Andrew LePage suggests there may still be room for prices to grow. Median prices in San Bernardino, Riverside, and Ventura counties are still well below their pre-recession peaks, and prices across Southern California haven’t yet matched 2007 levels, when adjusted for inflation.
Still, the high prices and the arrival of fall may have been enough to keep some buyers away from the market. Though the total number of homes tends to fall off in September, this year’s decrease in sales between August and September was just over 5 percent sharper than average across Southern California.
In LA County, home prices rose considerably over the past year. In September of 2016, the median home price was $525,000, a full 9.5 percent lower than the price a year later. Accordingly, total sales in September went down 3.6 percent since last year.