San Diego’s median home price continues to inch higher as the number of sales plummets to lows not seen in decades.

There were 2,435 home sales in July, the second-lowest for that month in records going back to 1988.

The median price rose 1.4 percent monthly in July to $850,000, said CoreLogic data released this week. That makes for a 6.9 percent annual gain and brings the price back to the all-time high reached in May 2022.

Low inventory made for a sluggish purchasing month with 2,435 sales, which is the second-lowest sales month for July in records dating to 1988. It was narrowly more than July 1995, which had 2,373 sales.

Many home sales these days are only if someone wants to move out of state or the homeowner died. Rising interest rates have made it so much more expensive to buy a home that it has continued a trend of some young couples getting help from parents.

Chris Thornberg, economist and founding partner of Beacon Economics, said the real estate market handled the increase in mortgage rates, with rising prices, because inventory was so low.

In the last week of July the average interest rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage was 6.81 percent, said Freddie Mac. It has continued to climb and was an average 7.06 percent on Wednesday, said Mortgage News Daily.

Home inventory has picked up slightly in recent weeks, but is still near historic lows. There were around 3,300 homes for sale in San Diego County in July. That’s up from 2,900 in April, but still down from nearly 6,000 at the same time last year.

The median number of days on market is climbing slightly. The number of days on market was about 12.7 in July, up from 10 to 11 days in May and June.

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 July:

• Resale single-family: Median of $935,000 with 1,505 sales. Down from its peak of $950,000 in April 2022.
• Resale condo: Median of $675,000, a new price peak, with 791 sales.
• Newly built: Median of $1.2 million, a new price peak, with 93 sales. This figure combines single-family homes, townhouses and condos. This month featured an influx of newly built single-family homes, lifting the average higher.

Monthly numbers can be highly volatile. An example would be this month’s newly built price, which was calculated with only 93 sales and had a large surge in prices.

Prices followed similar patterns in CoreLogic data across Southern California in July. Here’s a look at the median prices across Southern California.

Los Angeles County: Flat month-over-month for a median of $830,000. Down 0.6 percent for the year.
Orange County: Monthly rise of 1.5 percent for a median of $1.1 million. Up 7.5 percent for the year.
Riverside County: Monthly drop of 1.6 percent to a median of $551,250. Down 2.1 percent for the year.
San Bernardino County: Monthly rise of 1.1 percent for a median of $480,000. Down 4 percent for the year.
San Diego County: Monthly rise of 1.4 percent for a median of $850,000. Up 6.9 percent for the year.
Ventura County: Monthly rise of 0.7 percent to a median of $743,000. Up 0.9 percent for the year.

Source: SDuniontribune by Phillip Molnar