LOS ANGELES, CA – The question I get asked most lately is how is the market truly given the coronavirus. As we know real estate takes 60-90 days for homes to actually close so it is difficult to say until the numbers are finalized. However, we hear of a mass exodus from New York, and I want to dig into the numbers to give you the most real account of the market.

Most of what we are seeing is short term rentals for people coming from the city. Our rental market is up over 350% vs last year. What does it mean for sales, since it has not been 90 days since the lockdown that is tough to say?

The only way I could really tell you is to dig deeper into the numbers for April and May. I believe the sold numbers give us a false sense as the homes that have been bought have not closed. So, the only true metric is to look at how many homes went into contract in April over last April then do the same for May.

So, in April we were down 72%. Obviously a horrific number but this was the time we were in lockdown and people did not want strangers in the home and fear of buyers looking at homes. Here are the true April numbers:

A quick look at April greater Los Angeles single-family home sales data:

  • 30 homes closed in April 2020 vs. 35 in April 2019 = a 14% decline.
  • April 2020 average sales price was $1,812,262, a 39% drop from April 2019.
  • April 2020 median sales price was $1,717,500, a 25% drop from April 2019.
  • Total April 2020 $$ volume was $54,367,888, a 48% drop from April 2019.
  • Average DOM expanded 55% to 303 days.
  • Average sold price per square foot was $461 vs. $608 a year ago.
  • Greater Los Angeles Home sales $4M+ fell 83% in April 2020 vs. April 2019.
  • 14 homes went into Pending status in April 2020 vs. 48 in April 2019, a 71% decline.

Now when we compare that to the numbers of May we actually grew 6% which isn’t that great given we were trending up 30% on deals in January- March. However, to go up from after being April being so bad is a great sign. I would also take it a step farther and say most of the deals happened towards the end of the month when the restrictions eased. Here are the May numbers:

Here’s a look at May 2020 as compared to May 2019 in the market for greater Los Angeles single-family homes:

  • 51 homes sold in May 2020, a 10.5% decline compared to May 2019.
  • Average prices rose 11% to $2,331,168.
  • Median prices rose 1% to $1,920,000
  • Average sold price per square foot fell 4% to $498/psf.
  • Total $$ Volume in May was $118,889,575, down 0.57%
  • Sales in May 2020 ranged from $500k – $17,100,000; sales in May 2019 ranged $589k – $5,350,000.
  • Average DOM expanded to 251 days from 222 in May 2019
  • “Pending” deal activity 6.5% higher than a year ago. This is primarily due to activity in the $1M-$4M price ranges.

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