The sales of existing homes in California have rebounded in December after being slowed down by the new loan disclosure rules in November.
"As we speculated, sales that were delayed in November because of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's new loan disclosure rules closed in December instead, which led to the greatest monthly sales increase in nearly five years," said C.A.R. President, Ziggy Zicarelli. "Sales increased across the board in all price segments in December, but improvement in the sub-$500,000 market was more pronounced as many homes affected by the new loan disclosures were priced under the conforming loan limit."
According to the press release of the California Association of Realtors in PR NewsWire, the closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes in California sums up a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 405,530 units in December, up 9.6 percent from the revised 370,070 level in November, and up 10.7 percent compared with home sales in December 2014 of a revised 366,460.
The median price of existing, single-family detached homes in California has increased from $477,060 in November 2015 to $489,310 in December 2015, up by 2.6 percent. It is also 8.0 percent higher than the revised $453,270 recorded in December 2014.
"In line with our forecast, California's housing market experienced strong sales and price growth throughout last year, with the median price increasing 6.2 percent for the year as a whole to reach $474,420 in 2015," said C.A.R. Vice President and Chief Economist, Leslie Appleton-Young. "Looking forward, we expect the foundation for the housing market to remain strong throughout the year, with moderate increases in home sales and prices, but headwinds of tight housing supply and low affordability will remain a challenge."
The Los Angeles-based California Association of Realtors is one of the largest state trade organizations in the United States with 185,000 members dedicated to the advancement of professionalism in real estate.
