Source: Orange County Register
California’s five-year run of rising home prices is expected to last another three to five years, with median
house prices on track to beat the record highs set during the housing bubble, a Realtor economist said.
The California Association of Realtors forecast home prices will increase an additional 4.2 percent in
2018, rising to $561,020. If the forecast proves accurate, that existing single-family home price will
exceed the record high of $560,270 set in 2007. Prices, however, will remain well below pre-recession
records when taking inflation into account.
Single-family home sales also are projected to increase in the state next year, but at a much more modest
pace, the Realtor forecast said. CAR projected 426,200 houses will change hands, up 1 percent from this
year’s level.
Overall, the gains in both house prices and sales are lower than in past years, perhaps signaling the
California housing market’s “rate of acceleration has been slowing,” said CAR Chief Economist Leslie
Appleton-Young. “Southern California home prices are expected to rise at roughly the same pace in 2018
and to match the statewide median.”
