Market Conditions

CNBC reported on July 24, 2018, that sales of both new and existing houses and condominiums dropped 11.8 percent year over year, as prices shot up to a record high, according to CoreLogic. The median price paid for all Southern California homes sold in June was a record $536,250. A 7.3 percent increase compared to June 2017. In the past California, one of the largest housing markets in the nation has been a predictor for the rest of the country.  Sales fell 1.1 percent compared with May, but the average change from May to June, going back to 1988, is a 6 percent gain. The weakness was especially apparent in sales of newly built homes, which were 47 percent below the June average. Part of that is that builders are putting up fewer homes, so there is simply less to sell.