The run-up in housing prices has been so rapid, with L.A. prices roughly doubling over the last four years, that economists have been warning for months about the market being ripe for a correction.
That time could be at hand.
The October median price for an existing home in Los Angeles County fell to $520,000 from $528,000 the previous month, according to data provided to the Business Journal by HomeData Corp., a Melville, N.Y. firm that tracks existing home sales nationwide.
It’s not the first time that home prices have dipped on a sequential basis over the past 12 months, and October median home prices are still 21 percent higher than a year ago. But combined with data measuring sales volume, evidence is building that the local housing market might finally be running out of steam.
Last month, 8,435 homes were sold in the county, 166 fewer than September. It was the third straight month that sales fell, and the figure was the lowest monthly total since February (although October numbers were higher than for the like period a year earlier).
“The fall home-buying season typically is not the most robust, but in the context of our own data we are seeing a transition in the market,” said Leslie Appleton-Young, chief economist with the California Association of Realtors, which is predicting a 2 percent drop in home sales next year.
The association points to a growing inventory of homes that are spending a longer time on the market, as fixed interest rates top 6 percent for the first time in years and the Federal Reserve appears poised to continue raising rates.
Meanwhile, the association’s index of unsold inventory for L.A. County rose to 3.2 in September, up from 2.7 in August, with the median days on the market for an existing home rising slightly to 24.8 from 24. Still, inventories are extremely low by historical standards, and the 3.2 figure was lower than the 3.6 recorded in September 2004. (Figures for October, which are based on data from the association’s multiple listings service, are not yet available.)
