Home sales in California plunged an annual 20.8 percent during March in response to rising mortgage rates and tighter lending-standards, a trade association said Tuesday, the Daily Breeze reports.
Despite the sales slide, the median price of a previously owned house increased an annual 3.2 percent to $580,090, said the Los Angeles-based California Association of Realtors.
If the market matched March’s pace all year, 427,110 properties would change hands, the association said.
Last March’s annualized rate of 539,090 was the most for any month in 2006.
Potential buyers are now jittery, said association president Colleen Badagliacco.
