In LA County, median sales price hit $779,000 and the average sales price hit $700,000. In the larger county-wide market, these increases in prices are driven by low inventory (there are almost 25% fewer houses on the market now than a year ago, and only 3.6 months’ worth of supply).
However, this trend is not the case across all price points and all areas. In the higher-end luxury markets we primarily work in, there is, in general, much more inventory, and in particular, in the over $5 million price range, it is definitely more of a buyer’s market than a seller’s market. That’s not to say that all sellers of luxury homes are struggling to sell. It just means that the buyers looking in the uber-high end have their choice of houses and will only buy properties they feel are priced correctly.
Here are some highlights on some of the neighborhoods covered in the August 2020 Micro Market Report for Los Angeles.
Click here to read the full report and to see statistics for even more neighborhoods and counties in Southern California.
Brentwood, Hancock Park, Los Feliz, and the Pacific Palisades remain popular neighborhoods and they all experienced similar market trends: the median sales prices are up from a year ago, and activity is pretty robust with more properties selling and opening escrow in August 2019 vs August 2020. While there has been an increase in the number of properties for sale, demand is still fairly strong and there is only 5-7 month’s supply of inventory in each of these areas.
Beverly Hills and Beverly Hills Post Office both saw declines in the median sales price, although Beverly Hills proper seems more affected, as it has 45 months’ worth of supply and the number of closed sales in August was down 75% from last year. BHPO actually saw an increase in properties sold and new escrows, compared to last year, but it still has a relatively high months’ supply of inventory at 13 months.
Santa Monica saw a decrease in median sales price, but saw activity rise as more properties were sold and opened escrow in August 2020 vs 2019. There are slightly fewer houses for sale now and the month’s supply of inventory is just over 6.2 months.
Palms-Mar Vista saw only a small increase in median sale price, way fewer properties sold in Aug 2020, but there are more properties for sale and pending escrow now, so the months’ supply of inventory is 6.7.
Sunset Strip saw a small decrease in median sales price, but the number of properties sold was down 20% compared to last year. The inventory is still high (almost 12 months) but it has decreased since earlier in the pandemic, as there has been an uptick in new escrows.
In Venice, the median price fell 3.1% to $2,015,000, but the number of properties is flat year over year. There are 30% more properties on the market now, but in the past few months there has been an uptick in new escrows, keeping the months’ supply of inventory below 10 months.