It's a weird San Diego homebuying season as prices rise while sales …

For the first time in months, a San Diego home is now worth more than it was a year ago.
The median price rose 2.8 percent monthly in June to $835,000, said CoreLogic data released Wednesday. That marks the fourth month in a row of price increases, and a 3.1 percent gain year-over-year. Tight inventories have been cited as the main reason for price growth as homebuyers contend with higher mortgage rates.
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Even though prices are going up, it would be a stretch to say San Diegans are in a hot real estate market. There were 2,581 home sales in June — the lowest for that month in records going back to 1988. The only month close was June 1995, with 3,021 sales.
Lack of inventory and rising mortgage rates haven’t calmed competition among a relatively smaller group of buyers, who are pushing the price needle up.
“There (are) more factors to make prices go up than there are factors to push prices down,” said Mark Goldman, a real estate analyst with C2 Financial Corp.
Goldman said homeowners are unlikely to want to sell if they have a low mortgage rate. More than 60 percent of homeowners have mortgages below 4 percent, said the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The last week in June, the rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage was 6.71 percent, said Freddie Mac. As of Monday morning, it was 7.05 percent, said Mortgage News Daily.
In June, there were roughly 3,200 homes listed for sale, said the Redfin Data Center. That’s the lowest number of homes for sale in a June in at least four years. Goldman said if interest rates hold at current levels, he doesn’t see a lot of homes suddenly coming onto the market.
“Inventory will be tight for years to come,” he said.
Late spring and summer are typically the busiest times of the year for the real estate market but sales have been abysmal across the nation. Redfin, in an article, called the previous few months “the spring homebuying season that never happened.”
Raylene Brundage, an agent who sells in several North County communities, said she has seen very little change in the market in recent months, even if the overall median — the point at which half the homes sold for more and half for less — has been increasing.
She said people don’t want to sell not only because of higher interest rates but because it would be difficult to find a new house.
“There’s a lack of inventory because people aren’t selling,” Brundage said, “and people aren’t selling because there’s a lack of inventory.”
She said there are still occasional sellers cashing out and leaving California, but those aren’t enough to move the market.
San Diego County’s median combines resale and newly built single-family homes, condos and townhouses. Here’s how the different home types fared in June:

Prices followed similar patterns across Southern California in June. Here’s a look at the median prices across Southern California.
Los Angeles County: Monthly rise of 3.8 percent for a median of $830,000; down 2.4 percent for the year.
Orange County: Monthly rise of 5.9 percent for a median of $1.1 million; up 3.3 percent for the year.
Riverside County: Monthly rise of 0.6 percent for a median of $560,000; down 2.9 percent for the year.
San Bernardino: Monthly drop of 1 percent to a median of $475,000; down 5 percent for the year.
San Diego County: Monthly rise of 2.8 percent for a median of $835,000; up 3.1 percent for the year.
Ventura County: Monthly rise of 0.3 percent to a median of $807,000; up 0.2 percent for the year.
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