The average singlefamily home statewide across California reached $ 888,000 in October 2024, according to the California Association of Realtors, and a California condominium might cost you about $ 670,000.
While the unusually perfect number of $ 888,000 for California properties may seem a bit high for most Americans, it’ s lower than the few consecutive months earlier this summer when average home prices surpassed $ 900,000.
By comparison, the median home listing price in October for the entire nation reached $ 424,950, as per Realtor. com. Both the number of homes listed for sale and home prices are higher than one year prior.
For example, the total number of home listings rose + 22.5 % between October 2024 and October 2023 while home prices still increased in most U. S. home regions. This is quite an unusual combination of rising inventory and prices that are usually inverse to one another like a seesaw.
Generally, home prices either remain the same or start to fall as home listing inventory rises. However, our total national home listing supply is still well below historical averages and we’ ve haven’ t seen significant home price drops yet.
Unaffordable Home Prices and Payments
Nationwide, the typical monthly mortgage payment hit $ 2,175 in November 2024, which was quite a jump of + 6.9 % from one month prior when the October payment was $ 2,034, as per Reef Insights.
Image from Canva Pro
Boost Your Credit
to Afford Home Purchases
The good news about mortgage payments in the 4th quarter of 2024 is that they are 10.7 % lower than last year’ s record high of $ 2,435. This is primarily due to the fact that longterm 30year fixed mortgage rates have fallen quite a bit over the past year.
In spite of the more recent national mortgage payment averages being 10.7 % lower than last year, today’ s monthly payment for the U. S. is a whopping + 78.7 % higher than back in January 2020. The combination of record low mortgage rates and record high home prices in many regions between 2020 and 2024 were key reasons why home payments and home prices changed in recent years.
By Rick Tobin
Today, a homebuyer needs to budget or set aside another $ 1,000 per month($ 12,000 / yr.) to purchase the same house
compared to just four years ago. How many Americans today are earning $ 12,000 more per year today to help cover these costs? It’ s probably not that large of a number for home buyer prospects who are earning much more money today than back in 2020.
The Importance of Boosting FICO scores
As shared before in my article entitled The Interconnected California & Global Real Estate Markets, it’ s never been more important to figure out ways to increase your FICO credit scores so that your qualifying mortgage rates are as low as possible and your qualifying loantovalue( LTV) options are as high as possible, especially if you have minimal cash reserves for real estate purchases.
28