California home prices near 4-year high

California home sale prices came close to a 4-year high in July, with the pace of sales yearover- year growing for the fourth month in a row, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF

REALTORS® reported.

Making sense of the story



The median home price in July for an existing single-family home was $333,860 last

month, up 4.2 percent from $320,540 in June and nearly 13 percent from a year ago,

when the median home price in California was $296,160.



July’s median home price was the highest since August 2008, when it was $352,730.

July also marked the fifth consecutive month that the median price increased monthover-

month and year-over-year.



Sales in July rose to an annualized pace of 529,230 homes, an increase of 15.3 percent

compared with last July.



California’s housing inventory was nearly flat in July, with the index of existing, singlefamily

homes at 3.4 months compared with 3.5 months in June. However, July’s

inventory was down from a revised 5.6-month supply in July 2011. The index indicates

the number of months needed to sell the supply of homes on the market at the current

sales rate. A 7-month inventory is considered normal.