L.A. real estate news and insights.
Home buyers who paid cash accounted for 32% of home sales in January, marking the highest rate since 2014, the National Association of REALTORS® reports. Many leveraged the equity from a prior home sale.
Only 6% of first-time home buyers made a cash purchase in 2023 compared to 26% of repeat buyers.
There were a total of 10,887 homes on the market in January in LA County. This includes both new listings and homes that remain on the market unsold.
That was 13% below a year earlier, but an improvement from the 26% annual decline recorded in September.
Source: Zillow
Contact me for pictures.
According to the Zillow Home Value Index, home values fell in Los Angeles 0.1% between December 2023 and January 2024. Prices going down over the holidays is really no surprise as it tends to happen every year. 0.1% is far less than what I have seen in past holiday seasons.
Year over year LA home values are up 7.4%.
Some real estate experts are predicting home values could go up as much as 5% by the end of 2024.
Millennials are worried they’ll inherit properties in need of major renovations and repairs, which could further hamper affordability, a new survey shows.
Young move-up home buyers are growing increasingly worried that baby boomers, many of whom are staying put in their current home, won’t update their properties and will pass down costly renovations and repairs to the next generation of owners, according to a new study from Morning Consult and Leaf Home, a national home improvement company.
Many baby boomers are choosing not to downsize, with 68% saying they’ve lived in their homes for 30 years or more, the study shows. Many in that group admit they’ve never done renovations or replaced major appliances—and they don’t have any plans to, either.
Researchers say this could become a nightmare scenario for millennials, who may inherit or purchase these “time capsule” homes. Younger buyers’ budgets already are stretched thin by high home prices and mortgage rates. It’s difficult for many to add pricey renovations to their homebuying budget.
The National Assn. of Realtors said Friday that existing U.S. home sales totaled 4.09 million last year, an 18.7% decline from 2022. That is the weakest year for home sales since 1995 and the biggest annual decline since 2007, the start of the housing slump of the late 2000s.
In California, home sales fell 24.8% in 2023 from the previous year, the biggest drop since the 2007 housing slump, according to the California Assn. of Realtors. The state’s median home price — the point at which half the homes sold for more and half sold for less — reached $819,740 in December, up 6.4% from a year earlier.
Source: Los Angeles Times
A December report from real estate broker Realtor.com ranked the best U.S. cities to buy a house in 2024 based on expected price growth and sales.
The annual report analyzed the country’s 100 largest metropolitan areas and the final result is a list with half of the top metros in California.
10 best U.S. metro areas to buy a house in 2024:
1. Toledo, OH
2. Oxnard/Thousand Oaks/ Ventura, CA
3. Rochester, NY
4. San Diego/Chula Vista/Carlsbad, CA
5. Riverside/San Bernardino/Ontario, CA
6. Bakersfield, CA
7. Springfield, MA
8. Worcester, MA-CT
9. Grand Rapid/Kentwood, MI
10. Los Angeles/Long Beach/Anaheim, CA
The No. 2 best place in the U.S. to buy a house is Oxnard/Thousand Oaks/Ventura, California.
The California metropolitan area is expected to see existing home sales climb by 18% year-over-year. The median sale price of existing homes is expected to jump by 3.3%, according to the report.
2024 predictions:
6.1% Mortgage bankers association
6.3% National Association of Realtors
6.5% Fannie Mae
6.8% Realtor.com
Buy the home that Jennifer Aniston lived at while filming "Friends."
The property features a main residence, pool house, A-Frame guest house, a hillside bungalow, and panoramic views.
Asking price: $2,595,000
Who cares about high-interest rates when you are buying your home in cash?!?
About 43% of luxury homes that sold in the third quarter of 2023 were purchased in cash, up from just 34.6% a year earlier.
By comparison, just 28% of non-luxury homes that sold were bought in cash, little changed from the third quarter of 2022.
Source: Redfin
The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, the first time in nearly two years that the central bank paused rates over the course of two consecutive meetings.
While some have interpreted the latest pause as a sign that the Fed is nearing the end of its rate hikes, inflation remains stubbornly above the central bank’s 2 percent target, and the labor market is hotter than officials would like.
Federal Reserve Chair Powell said the strength of consumer and small business finances may have been “underestimated” as spending remains strong.
Barring any major news stories over the next 45 days, I'm anticipating a rate hike at the Fed's December meeting.
Source: The Hill
A cocktail of high mortgage rates and high home prices has driven potential buyers to back out of deals at the highest rate in a year.
Monthly pending home sales that fell out of a contract in the US for the month of September notched 16.6%, the highest since October 2022 when mortgage rates surpassed 7%.
Of the 50 most populous metro areas analyzed, cities in Florida were found to have been hit hardest by rising deal cancellations in September. Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami all saw deal cancellations above 20% of pending home sales. At the top of the charts was Atlanta, with 24.4% of home deals that fell through.
Source: Business Insider
Accessory dwelling units, also referred to as ADUs and “granny flats,” have been available in California only as rentals. But a new law is giving Californians the opportunity to buy and sell them as condominiums.
ADUs come in all shapes and sizes — for example, a converted garage, a small home in the backyard, or, as often seen in San Francisco, an unused portion of the main house.
Under AB 1033, which was signed into law this week, property owners in participating cities will be able to construct an ADU on their land and sell it separately, following the same rules that apply to condominiums.
Under the new law, local governments need to opt in to the ADU-as-condominium approach for it to be an option in their cities.
As with new condominiums, homeowners building ADUs must notify the local utilities, including water, sewer, gas and electric, of the creation and separate conveyance of the unit. Each property will also have to form a homeowners association to assess dues to cover the cost of caring for the property’s exterior and shared spaces, such as the driveway, a pool or a common roof.
Selling ADUs as condominiums is having success in places such as Oregon, Texas and Seattle. Sample sales for neighbor residential parcels with detached ADUs, reporting that a unit of more than 1,000 square feet sold for an average of anywhere between $500,000 to $800,000.
Source: Los Angeles Times
A recent report from Redfin said more home sellers are dropping their asking price. During the four weeks ending September 24, 6.5% of US homes for sale had a price drop, an uptick from 5.8% in August.
"It's still tough to win a home for under asking price, but sellers have come to terms with the fact that 7%-plus mortgage rates are giving buyers cold feet and that homes aren't as likely to attract multiple offers," Redfin said.
