In February, California’s housing market showed resilience despite a recent increase in mortgage rates. The state saw its highest level of home sales since September 2022, with an annualized pace of 290,020 single-family homes sold. This marks a 12.8% increase from January and a 1.3% rise from the previous year.
Although this is the seventeenth consecutive month with home sales below 300,000 units, year-to-date numbers show positive growth at 3.4%. This suggests that the upcoming spring homebuying season will be stronger than last year.
According to C.A.R.’s president Melanie Barker: “Housing supply conditions in California have improved significantly in February as new active listings increased by more than10%. This is great news for buyers who have been struggling to find available homes.”
C.A.R.’s chief economist Jordan Levine also commented on the current market: “While interest rates may result in slightly slower sales for March, we anticipate that buyers who were previously waiting on the sidelines will enter back into the market as economic growth slows down and interest rates begin to decrease again during Q2.”
