For many of us, the past years indications are a good way to tell what the new year has in store. This is also true when it comes to home sales. Knowing what the market did last year will help us get a good feeling about how it will perform in 2016 so we can plan accordingly.
According to a well known market tracker, home sales increased 10 percent from a year earlier across Southern California in December, the second biggest gain of the year. Last month 20,890 new and previously owned houses and condominiums changed owners, up from 19,019 in December of 2014. At the same time, sales increased from the year-ago level in all six counties. The year-over-year gain was the largest since a 17 percent increase last July.
Although Southern California’s housing market ended 2015 on a high note in December, there were some delays of some transactions that normally would have closed in November but were delayed by days or weeks as the industry adjusted to new federal mortgage rules that took effect in October which caused the December numbers to surge.
As far as pricing, The median price last month increased 7 percent from the prior year to $443,000 and inched up 1 percent from December.
In Los Angeles County, sales increased 8 percent from a year earlier to 7,198 properties and the median price rose 8 percent to $500,00. Sales soared 38 percent from 5,202 in November and the median price rose 2 percent.
In San Bernardino County, sales rose 11 percent from the prior year to 2,413 properties and the median price increased 7 percent to $272,000. Sales rose 24 percent from November while the median price dipped 2.5 percent.
So if these statistics are in any way indicative of how this year will be going we are in for a good 2016 as far as the real estate market goes. So it looks like the future looks good for California real estate.