Orange County homes prices hit another record in May, even as sales for the month dropped to their lowest level in more than 20 years.
The median price of a home sold in OC was $635,000 in May, up 8% from a year earlier, according to La Jolla-based market tracker DataQuick Information Systems, a unit of Canada’s MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates.
The May figure is up $7,000 from last month. April’s $628,000 median price had been the county’s previous high.
The number of homes sold in the county continued to slow in May, dropping 32% from a year ago. A total of 3,113 homes were sold in the county last month, compared to 3,276 in April and 3,910 in March.
This year was the slowest May in OC sales since 1985, according to DataQuick’s figures.
More than 27,000 new and existing homes were sold in Southern California in May, down 12% from a year ago. It was the slowest May since 1999 for Southland home sales.
The median price paid for a home in Southern California was $485,000 in May, flat from last month but up 6.4% from a year ago. That’s the lowest year-over-year increase since July 2000, according to DataQuick.
OC prices are holding up better than those in other Southern California counties. In San Diego, the May median price was $490,000, up $2,000 from a year ago but down $15,000 from the previous month.
The county remained the most expensive in the region by median price last month. Ventura was the second most expensive county, at $586,000, up from $584,000 last month.
