Orange County Housing Numbers for May 2024

Home sales posted a fourth consecutive gain in Orange County. Bouncing off a 12-month low, we have
seen a climb to 2,128 homes sold in May. This is still about one third below normal May sales but
represents a 44% increase from January despite high interest rates.

The median sales price reached another all time high of $1,200,000. This is $150,000 more than the
price in January of this year. At 12.5% increase, it has surpassed the estimated increase for all of 2024. It
means several things that have been pointed out in several OC Register articles in May. The increasing
record highs, coupled with high interest rates means that only 15% of southern Californians can
purchase a median home price along coastal and Riverside counties (5/16, JLansner). Lansner pointed
out that it only took 13 months for the median price statewide to rise $100,000 (5/24). This sharp
increase led to another article pointing out that eight of the top twenty cities cited for being least
affordable are in southern California. This placement compares the median home price mortgage
payment with the median income (5/27 but does not indicate if income is individual or household).

On a good note, the number of active listings continue to grow in 2024. May ended the month with
3,693 homes for sale, compared to April’s 3,176. The recent 15-year low point of this cycle was
December 2021 when only 2,677 homes were for sale. The ending figure for May is 27.5% above the
12/21 number but requires significant growth to join the 2012 to 2020 cycle when active listings only
dipped below 5,000 once, living above 7,000 listings of homes on sale for most of the period.

Please give me a call at Premier Funding Network to answer any of your mortgage questions at 714-283-9900.