Los Angeles home prices continued their upward march, with the median price rising 7 percent in August, compared to the same month a year earlier, a real estate information service announced Wednesday.
According to CoreLogic, the median price of a Los Angeles County home was $615,000 last month, up from $575,000 in August 2017. A total of 7,497 homes were sold in the county, down 8.5 percent from 8,197 during the same month the previous year.
In Orange County, the median price was $727,000 last month, up 6 percent from $686,000 in August 2017. The number of homes sold dropped by 10.9 percent, from 3,733 in August 2017 to 3,325 last month.
A total of 22,261 new and resale houses and condos changed hands in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties last month, according to CoreLogic. That was up 4.5 percent from 21,296 in July, but down 8.1 percent from 24,223 in August 2017.
The median price of a Southern California home was $535,000 in August, up 0.9 percent from $535,000 in July and up 7 percent from $500,000 in August 2017.
“Home sales downshifted significantly this summer,” said Andrew LePage, research analyst with CoreLogic. “Sales during the June-through-August period fell 6.8 percent year over year and were the slowest for a summer in four years. … Lack of affordable inventory is one of the main culprits of this summer’s slowdown.”