Homes have never been more expensive in Ventura County, although price increases have slowed since the booming real estate market in the early years of the pandemic.
In July, the median price of 314 single-family homes sold in the county was $972,000, according to data released Monday by the California Association of Realtors. The median is the point at which half of the sales prices were lower and half were higher.
July’s median sales price was the highest ever, surpassing the previous record of $964,500 set the previous month, representing a 5.7% increase over the July 2023 median price.
July’s year-over-year price increase was well below the double-digit increases seen in previous years. The median home price in Ventura County rose 15% between July 2020 and July 2021, and then another 12% from July 2021 to July 2022. Prices then stagnated for most of 2023, rising by single-digit percentages this year.
The residential real estate market has been characterized by high prices and low sales in Ventura County and elsewhere in California over the past few years. In Ventura County, the number of sales fell sharply each month in 2022 and 2023 as rising interest rates made mortgages more expensive and priced both buyers and sellers out of the market.
Mortgage rates peaked last fall and have dropped somewhat since then. Homes are selling a little more frequently. In July, Ventura County saw 7.9% more sales than the previous year. This was the fourth month in the last seven with an increase in sales volume compared to the previous year.
The median sales price in California was $886,560 in July, up 6.5 percent from a year earlier. Many counties had median home prices above $1 million, including Orange, San Diego and most counties in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Ventura County is generally considered less affordable than the more expensive counties because our wages are lower. In April, the National Association of Realtors ranked Ventura County as the second most expensive metropolitan area in the United States for homebuyers, trailing only the Los Angeles-Long Beach metropolitan area.
Tony Biasotti is an investigative reporter and observer for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at [email protected]. This story was made possible by a grant from the Ventura County Community Foundation’s Local Journalism Fund.
