The coronavirus pandemic has pushed home prices higher and higher in what's been a buyer's market since about June 2020 following the initial stay-at-home orders in California. There are just not enough homes on the market.
South Bay home prices in March 2021 continued to increase, now up to record levels, while at the same time the number of sales rose again after declining since September 2020.
As markets rebounded and people spent more time at home, many buyers began thinking about new homes. In desirable locations, such as the South Bay, there just hasn't been enough sellers to quench the demand of buyers, so prices rose... Classic supply and demand economics.
As interest rates increase and economic uncertain declines, look for less buyers and more sellers to enter the market, likely stabilizing some of the prices and easing back on the some of the bidding wars taking place.
Home prices in each of the beach cities including Torrance rose by more than 10% in March compared to last year with the biggest gains in Manhattan Beach where prices rose 31.4% and the Palos Verdes Estates where prices rose 35.5%.
Hermosa Beach saw home prices rise 27.5% from last year up to $2.2 million median sale price, not quite record levels. Palos Verdes Estates and Manhattan Beach accounted for the highest median sale price at $2.29 million and $3.02 million respectively.
In Redondo Beach, home prices rose 14.5% compared to last year with a median sale price of $1.33 million.
Redondo Beach also recorded the largest gain in number of homes sold with 89 in March representing a 51% increase year-over-year.
We can't forget, however, that March 2020 was the first month deeply impacted by the coronavirus pandemic so logically home sells would lag. September 2020 saw the highest number of home sales over the past year with 113 homes sold in Redondo Beach that month.
Similar trends played out in the other beach cities.
Palos Verdes Estates had 15 home sold in March representing a 36% increase from last year. Manhattan Beach had 36 homes sold for a 33% increase. Hermosa Beach 24 homes sold for a 14.3% increase. And Torrance recorded 134 homes sold for a 16% increase.
In terms of fewest days on the market, Hermosa Beach beat out the other beach cities at 23 median days on the market, representing a 64% declie from the same time last year. Redondo Beach recorded a median of 26 days on the market.
Torrance came in third with 32 median days on the market. Palos Verdes Estates recorded 48 days on the market and Manhattan Beach 54 days.
