Home sales in California came in below average once again in August as prices continued to crawl up.
Real estate information firm CoreLogic DataQuick [1] estimated Friday that August home sales [2] in the state—including new and resale houses and condos—totaled 37,228 last month, down 6.0 percent from July's estimate of 39,608. Compared to a year ago, sales fell 12.5 percent short.
August home sales have varied in California from a low of 29,764 in 1992 to a high of 73,285 in 2005, according to the company's data. Last month's sales were 21.6 percent below the long-running average of 47,456 for all the months of August since 1988.
California sales haven't been above the average for any month in more than eight years, the firm said.
Of the existing homes that sold in the state last month, an estimated 5.4 percent were houses that had been foreclosed on during the past year, CoreLogic DataQuick reported. That figure is down 5.6 percent from July and 7.8 percent from a year prior.
The median price paid for a home in the Golden State in August was $393,000, marking a slight increase from July's median of $392,000. A year ago, the median price in the state was $361,000.
Last month marked the 30th straight month in which the state's median sales price rose on an annual basis.
Finally, the typical monthly mortgage payment buyers committed themselves to in August was $1,523, just barely up from July and less than $100 up from a year ago. Adjusted for inflation, August's payment was 35.5 percent below the typical payment made in spring 1989, the peak of the prior real estate cycle, and 47.7 percent below the current cycle's peak of 47.7 percent—set in June 2006.