California’s Home Sales Leveled Up In May 2021

June 28th, 2021 by Administrator
California home

445,660 sales of existing, single-family detached homes closed escrow in California in May 2021, as stated by the California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.) in its latest report released on 16th June. May home sales in 2021 represent a whopping gain of 86.7 percent from last May (238,740) and only a slight monthly dip of 2.7 percent from the last year’s April (458,170).

If we talk about median home price, the statewide median home price for May month was $818,260, which is up 0.5 percent from April and up 39.1 percent from May 2020. The year-over-year price gain is the highest ever recorded and May was the second straight month when the state recorded an annual increase of over 30 percent.

The statewide sales’ annual record represents the picture of how many homes would be sold during 2021 if the sales are made at the same pace through the remaining months of the year as they were in May.

This sharp rise in the number of home sales in 2021 was expected as the housing market was hit hard by the pandemic and lockdown the last year when home sales plummeted to the lowest since the Great Recession. The 2021 May home sales clearly show that many homeowners merely delayed their home purchases in 2020 instead of canceling them altogether. Since the end of 2020, home sales have only picked up the slack as homebuyers don’t want to miss great home deals.  

The most interesting fact is that the demand for million-dollar homes increased by 200 percent year-over-year that ultimately caused its market share to double what it was one year ago when it was just 15.6 percent. In the past two months, more million-dollar properties were sold than homes rated below $500,000.

Key Highlights of C.A.R’s May 2021 Resale Housing Report

  • All major regions recorded at least 44 percent year-over-year growth in sales from May 2020. Among all, the Central Coast home sales skyrocketed with a 111.8 percent increase.
  • 49 out of 51 counties recorded a year-over-year sales increase in May 2021. Six of the counties witnessed a growth rate of more than 100 percent.
  • More sales were made in higher-priced markets than lower-priced markets.
  • 3 out of 5 major regions saw new record high median prices in May. The San Francisco Bay Area topped the list with a year-over-year gain of 38.9 percent, followed by South California, the Central Coast, the Central Valley, and the Far North.
  • All of the counties saw an increase in their median price on a year-over-year basis, with 50 of them reported at least a double-digit growth rate from May 2020.
  • The Unsold Inventory Index (UII) improved a bit from 1.6 months in April to 1.8 months in May 2021 but remained quite below the last year’s level.
  • The supply of housing typically reached the highest level in six months and continues to increase during this time of the year until late July or early August.
  • The average 30-year fixed mortgage interest rate is recorded 2.96 percent in May, which is slightly lower than 3.23 percent in last May.

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