LOS ANGELES, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Despite higher interest rates alongside geopolitical uncertainty, California's housing market continued to maintain a solid sales pace with rising prices, the California Association of Realtors reported Tuesday.
California home prices continued to increase from the previous year. The statewide median price inched up to 771,270 U.S. dollars in February, up 0.7 percent from January's 765,610 dollars and 10.3 percent from the 699,000 dollars recorded in February 2021.
The leader in home prices continues to be the San Francisco Bay Area, where the median price was 1.335 million dollars, with a high of 2.1 million dollars in San Mateo County, 1.9 million dollars in San Francisco and 1.82 million dollars in Santa Clara County.
In the Los Angeles metro area, consisting of Los Angeles and Orange counties, the house price rose disproportionately. The median price of an existing, single-family home was 725,000 dollars in February, up from 700,000 dollars in January and 649,000 dollars one year ago.
More significantly, the median price in Orange County stood at 1.26 million dollars, a jump of 265,000 dollars from February 2021.
The cheapest houses in California can be found in Lassen County in the far north with a median price of 239,000 dollars.
Meanwhile, total sales of existing single-family houses in California were down 4.5 percent from January and 8.2 percent from February 2021 to 424,640 in February. Southern California saw a 9.9-percent decrease in total house sales over February 2021.
"Despite higher mortgage rates, California's housing market is holding up remarkably strong, with home prices re-accelerating, market competition growing and signs that the listings crunch is thawing," California Association of Realtors President Otto Catrina said in a statement. ■