California home sale prices came close to a 4-year high in July, with the pace of sales year-over-year growing for the fourth month in a row, the California Association of REALTORS® reported.
The median home price in July for an existing single-family home was $333,860 last month, up 4.2 percent from $320,540 in June and nearly 13 percent from a year ago, when the median home price in California was $296,160.
July’s median home price was the highest since August 2008, when it was $352,730. July also marked the fifth consecutive month that the median price increased month-over-month and year-over-year.
Sales in July rose to an annualized pace of 529,230 homes, an increase of 15.3 percent compared with last July.
California’s housing inventory was nearly flat in July, with the index of existing, single-family homes at 3.4 months compared with 3.5 months in June. However, July’s inventory was down from a revised 5.6-month supply in July 2011. The index indicates the number of months needed to sell the supply of homes on the market at the current sales rate. A 7-month inventory is considered normal.
