San Diego County home sales were down for the 12th month in a row in April, said real estate tracker CoreLogic on Wednesday.
The median home price was up from previous months to $570,000, the same price it was in April 2018. In the past 12 months, the median hit a peak of $584,750 in August and a low of $532,000 in January.
There were 3,593 home sales in April, down 3.4% from the same time last year. Still, that's up from the past 11 months, which have seen an average drop of 12%. As with Southern California as a whole, April could be a sign the housing market is gaining steam again.
CoreLogic analyst Andrew LePage wrote that a smaller decrease in sales across the region could mean that declining interest rates, and more homes on the market, motivated buyers.
"This might include people who backed out of a tighter, more frenzied market last year," he wrote, "when rising prices and mortgage rates priced out some and made others worry about buying near a peak."
San Diego's market was led by resale single-family home sales, which were up 2.8% year-over-year and was the only type of home to see a bump. The resale median reached $630,000 — back to an all-time high reached in June and July last year.
Resale condo sales were down 3.6%, with a median of $420,000, down from a peak of $430,000 reached in June and July.
There were 208 newly built homes sold, which is keeping with trends of decreasing new homes for sale. In January, there were only 113 newly built homes sold. The median in April was $639,273, but not considered statistically significant considering such few sales.
Most analysts have said the market is still far from becoming a buyer's market, but there are more options for potential purchasers. Sluggish sales have meant more inventory, said data from the Greater San Diego Association of Realtors.
There were 6,160 homes for sale in April, up from 5,637 the same time last year and 4,763 in 2017.
Mark Goldman, an analyst with C2 Financial Corp., said the number of homes for sale is still way under what would make the San Diego market more equal between buyers and sellers. He suspected a reason that more homes were not for sale was because it would be difficult to buy another place to live in the area.
"Where are you going to go?" he said.
Homes near the median price are still getting multiple offers, said Evan Morris, a real estate agent based in Golden Hill. He said resale single-family homes listed for around $600,000 in markets like La Mesa, College Area and Mira Mesa are receiving two to five offers. The homes that are getting the most offers are ones that are well-maintained and won't take a ton of work.
"Turn-key homes are flying," Morris said.
Interest rates have declined since the same time last year, making the San Diego median priced home — which is exactly the same as a year ago at $570,000 — cheaper in a year's time.
The average mortgage rate in April was 4.14%, said Freddie Mac, down from 4.47% in April last year. That means the monthly mortgage payment declined by $88 for people who waited a year to buy.
In markets with at least 10 resale single-family home sales in April, Ranch Santa Fe (92067) had the biggest increase, 27.2%, to a median of $2.9 million. Escondido (92029) was up 22% to a median of $815,000 and Pacific Beach (92109) up 21.8% to a median of $1.4 million.
Southern California's average median home price was $527,500, up 1.4% in a year across the six counties.
Riverside County's median price was up 3.6% annually to a median of $390,000. It was followed by Los Angeles County, up 3% for a median of $607,750; Orange County, up 2.8% to $735,000; and San Bernardino County, up 1.5% for a median of $335,000. Ventura and San Diego counties had no increase.
