California Home Sales off 24% YoY in August, Prices Up Only 1.4% YoY; August Existing Home Sales Forecast

August’s sales pace was up 6.1 percent on a monthly basis from 295,460 in July and down 24.4 percent from a year ago, when 414,860 homes were sold on an annualized basis. … The statewide median price edged up 0.7 percent in August to $839,460 from the $833,910 recorded in July and was up 1.4 percent from the $827,940 recorded last August. The year-over-year price gain was the smallest in more than two years.

I project that existing home sales as estimated by the National Association of Realtors ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.84 million in August, up 0.6% from July’s preliminary pace and down 19.2% from last August’s seasonally adjusted pace.