#california-housing-market

#california-housing-market

California's most expensive housing markets are posting mixed results, with price per square foot ranging from $706 to $989 among top metros. While all significantly exceed state and national medians, their selling speeds and market conditions vary widely. Santa Barbara leads the state at $989 per square foot, followed by San Jose at $962. Both metros price well above California's $409 median and dwarf the national median of $213. Yet their market dynamics differ substantially.

HW Data for the week of Oct. 3 shows California's median list price at $775,000 with inventory of 57,048 homes and a market action index of 37.3. Florida's median list price is $484,000 with inventory of 97,525 homes and a market action index of 30.3. Price reductions reached 36 percent of active listings in California and 44 percent in Florida.

In 2025's first half, 36% of purchases statewide were made by investors up from 31% for all of 2024 and 16% at the recent low in 2020 as coronavirus was scrambling the economy. Or look at the change this way: Investors were tied to an average of 33% of all California homebuying in the past 18 months vs. 21% in 2015-23.

My trusty spreadsheet reviewed data from Cotality previously known as CoreLogic tracking the share of single-family home purchases made by people not occupying the property. My focus was on the average pace of the past 18 months last year and the first six months of 2025 and how those investment patterns compared to the previous nine years. What stands out: Seven of California's 10 most significant increases in investor share of homebuying were nowhere near the Pacific.

Chinese buyers accounted for $13.7 billion in US residential real estate purchases from April 2024 to March, marking an 83% increase from the previous year.