The California statewide median home price climbed above the $800,000 level for the first time in six months during April, according to data from the California Association of Realtors (CAR).
Last month’s $815,340 median home price was up by 3% from March’s $791,490 to $815,340, although it was also 7.8% the revised $884,680 recorded last April.
While prices remained elevated, sales activity was enervated. Last month saw closed sales on 267,800 single-family detached homes, down 4.7% from the 281,050 in March and down 36.1% from the revised total of 418,970 homes one year earlier. Sales of existing single-family homes in California remained below the 300,000-unit pace for the seventh consecutive month.
“While home sales declined in April, the market is getting more competitive as we’re seeing time on the market before selling down to 20 days in April from 33 days in January and the share of homes sold above asking price double from one in five at the beginning of the year to more than two in five in April,” said CAR President Jennifer Branchini, a Bay Area realtor. “This increase in market competition continued to provide support to the statewide median home price in April, which climbed above $800,000 for the first time in six months.”
CAR revised its 2023 Housing Market Forecast and is now projecting existing single-family home sales to reach 279,900 units in 2023, a decline of 18.2% from the 342,000 units sold in 2022. The California median home price is projected to decrease 5.6% to $776,600 in 2023, down from the annual median price of $822,300 recorded in 2022.
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