Last year ended with house prices up 6.7% in Los Angeles and Orange counties and rising 7.5% in the Inland Empire as a drop in listings continued to push prices upward, the California Association of Realtors reported.
The median price of an existing single-family home in Los Angeles and Orange counties — or the price at the median of all sales — hit $577,690 in December, Realtor economists reported. That's up $31,000 from the December 2016 median.
The median for the Inland Empire counties of Riverside and San Bernardino was $345,570 for an existing house, up more than $24,000 year over year.
The CAR release is the first of a series of key housing market reports providing a full-year look at 2017. Real estate data firm CoreLogic plans to release its Southern California all-home price and sales report Wednesday. Two same-home comparison indexes — the CoreLogic Home Price Index and the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices — both are due in February.
Rising prices and limited listings crimped sales in the region last month, CAR figures show.
Southern California home sales fell in five out of six Southern California counties, dropping 7.1% in the L.A./O.C. markets and falling 3.5% in the Inland Empire.
"A supply shortage and affordability (issues) were likely factors in the decline," the CAR report said.
Southern California wasn't the only region facing inventory issues.
CAR's "unsold inventory" index fell to 2.5 months supply, the lowest since June 2004. The figure represents the number of months it would take to sell all the homes on the market at last month's sales pace.
The constrained inventory helped push the statewide median home price up 7.6% to $549,560.
"A severe shortage of homes for sale continues to push up home prices and erode affordability, which in turn is subduing home sales," CAR President Steve White was quoted as saying.
A county-by-county breakdown shows:
Orange County continued to have one of the highest median house prices in the state: $785,500 in December, up 5.4% year over year. Sales in Orange County fell 12.5% from a year earlier.
Los Angeles County's median house price was $577,690, up 10.6% year over year. L.A. County sales fell 7.3% from a year earlier.
Riverside County's median house price was $385,000, up 6.9%. Sales fell 5.9% from a year earlier.
San Bernardino County's median house price was $278,000, up 9%. It was the sole county in the region to see a sales gain, with transactions up 0.4% from a year earlier.
California's median house price for all 2017 was $537,869, up 6.9% from 2016. Sales were up 1.4%, with 423,760 single-family homes changing hands last year.
"California's housing market turned in a respectable performance throughout 2017," said CAR Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young. "Looking ahead, the market will remain solid, but both sales and prices will be impacted by inventory shortages, impending interest rate hikes and general economic factors, including the effects of tax reform."
