Researchers say sales of existing homes are down in San Diego and throughout California, showing the greatest sales decline since the summer of 1982. The California Association of Realtors reports home sales statewide dropped by more than thirty-percent last month, compared to a year ago. The Association’s Economist Robert Kleinhenz says the fast-pace of appreciation in home prices has also slowed.
Kleinhenz: We’ve been accustomed to increases in the teens or in the 20-plus percent range in the year-over-year basis for the past few years but this year we’ve seen a slowdown to single digits.
The median price of an existing single-family home in San Diego fell more than two-percent last month and sales were down 26 percent compared to a year ago. A home in San Diego sold for more than 598-thousand about 20-thousand more than the state average. Kleinhenz says the slowdown is due in part to a sense of uncertainty about the direction of interest rates.
