What Do the Latest Stats From September Tell Us?

Here’s what you need to know about our market as we head into the holidays.

We now have the complete market report for September 2020, so let’s compare it to September of last year

for a clearer picture of real estate’s remarkable comeback:

- Home prices increased 15.2% year over year (note: average yearly appreciation is only about 5% to 6%)
- The median price for a single-family home in Southern California increased from $570,000 last year to

$656,000 this year 

Of course, most of you are only concerned with the communities that fall within the following perimeter: the

710 freeway as the western limit (Pasadena down toward Montebello and Monterey Park); the 210 freeway

as the northern limit; the 60 as the southern limit; and the 15 as the eastern limit (Rancho Cucamonga,

Ontario, and a small portion of East Bay). The good news is that the market within that boundary is

doing quite well—better, in fact, than Southern California as a whole.

Our market is very strong.

Here at the important takeaways from the September report:

-Home prices in this market have increased 16.4% year over year

-The median price increased from $660,000 last year to $769,000 this year 

-There were 2,212 listings taken this year compared to 2,032 last year

-1,751 closings closed this year versus 1,480 last year 

-The total number of units sold increased by 18.5% year over year

Due to a variety of compounding factors, our market is very strong. As you may recall from my April, May,

and June market reports, I expected the market to fly back up after its hard COVID-induced nosedive.

Sure enough, thanks to historically low interest rates (now sitting anywhere between 2.5% and 2.75% for

qualified buyers) the market stabilized and has been soaring smoothly ever since. We lost about three

months’ worth of business earlier this year, but a phenomenal summer and an unusually busy fall have

helped real estate rebalance nicely. 

I can’t stress enough how impactful these low rates have been; just a 1% dip in the average rate represents

a huge leap upward on the affordability index, meaning buyers can get more home for their money despite

rising prices. 

I hope you found this market update insightful. If you have questions about any particular statistic or real

estate in general, please feel free to call or email me. I’d love to be your trusted real estate resource. As

always, stay safe, and stay tuned!