Southern California condo prices drop 6%
- Southern California condo prices fell to a $656,000 median in February 2026, down 6% from a year earlier across six counties. - The February drop was the steepest annual decline for Southern California condos since 2012, after a February 2025 peak of $699,000. - California’s detached-home prices still rose in February, underscoring a split market as condos soften first. (car.org)
Southern California condo prices fell to a $656,000 median in February, down 6% from a year earlier across Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura counties. (ocregister.com) That was the biggest annual price drop for the region’s condos in 14 years, according to ATTOM data cited by the Orange County Register. February 2025 was the recent high at $699,000. (ocregister.com) (dailynews.com) The same ATTOM dataset showed the broader Southern California median for houses and condos combined at $800,000 in February, down 2% from a year earlier. That was the region’s largest overall dip since 2023. (ocregister.com) (d2dr22b2lm4tvw.cloudfront.net) Condominiums usually sit at the lower end of the ownership market, so they are often the first place buyers look when mortgage rates squeeze budgets. A price decline there can signal that entry-level demand is weakening before bigger shifts show up in detached houses. (ocregister.com) California’s statewide detached-house market was moving the other way in February. The California Association of Realtors said the statewide median single-family price rose 0.9% from January to $830,370 and was slightly above February 2025. (car.org) Sales activity also picked up statewide even as affordability stayed strained. The California Association of Realtors reported a 274,820 annualized pace for existing single-family sales in February, up 7.0% from January but down 0.3% from a year earlier. (car.org) The trade group said lower mortgage rates earlier in the year helped bring some buyers back, but it also warned that a later rate spike could cool that momentum. California Association of Realtors President Tamara Suminski said February showed “solid gains” in sales and prices for detached homes. (car.org) For Southern California condo buyers, the February numbers point to a market that has cooled from its 2025 peak but is still expensive by historical standards. The median remains only about $43,000 below last year’s high. (ocregister.com)
