Southern California home prices jumped 5.6% in March from a year earlier, as buyers fought over a meager supply of homes for sale and bid up values.
The six-county region’s median price hit $449,000 last month, up from $425,000 a year earlier, real estate data firm CoreLogic said Monday. Sales, meanwhile, rose only 1.9% from March 2015 — reflecting a tough market defined by high prices and low inventory.
Indeed, the region’s hot housing market has made it increasingly tough for young families who want to purchase a home, even as it’s largely wiped out the foreclosure crisis and helped existing homeowners build equity.
In Los Angles County, for example, only 27% of households could reasonably afford to purchase the median-priced home toward the end of last year, according to the California Assn. of Realtors.
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