LA County home prices dipped to $565K in October

Get ready for some good news, homebuyers. Los Angeles County home prices did not break or tie a record high in October, according to real estate tracker CoreLogic. That’s the first time that’s happened in seven months.

In fact, median sale prices dropped considerably last month, falling nearly 2 percent from $575,000 to $565,000. That’s still a big number (for comparison, in October of 2016, the median sale price was $525,000), but anything’s an improvement over the highest price in history.

The number of homes sold in LA County also fell off by 1.4 percent last month, though the total number (6,860) was up 4.2 percent over October of last year. Across all of Southern California, in fact, October sales were the highest they’ve been in the month over the last five years.

As CoreLogic’s report notes, both prices and sales typically decline during the fall months after peaking in the summer season.

But that may not be the only factor behind a Southern California-wide dip in sale prices. CoreLogic analyst Andrew Le Page says that “a higher share of homes” are selling in less expensive neighborhoods.

That’s not necessarily a good omen for those in search of a starter home. With more competition in these areas, and a relatively low number of homes for sale, LePage predicts “upward pressure on home prices and rough going for first-time homebuyers.”

Lagging rates of new home construction and sales also aren’t helping. Last month, sales of newly built homes were a whopping 47.5 percent below the historic average for the month.

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