Existing-Home Sales, Prices Climb in Nov.

Thanks to confident consumers eager to beat climbing interest rates, sales and prices of existing homes in California and the rest of the nation rose in November, realty trade groups reported Tuesday.

Sales of existing single-family homes in California rose 3% last month over the same period last year to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 665,780, the California Assn. of Realtors said.

The median price of an existing single-family home in California jumped 12.6% in November, to $221,890, from $197,060 a year ago, CAR said.

Home prices have been rising steadily for two years, but the November surge reflects an acceleration of that trend.

“It’s a relatively rare jump at this stage in the California housing-market recovery,” said G.U. Krueger, CAR’s deputy chief economist.

“Consumers believe there will be a jump in the interest rates, so they are hurrying up to lock in the lower interest rates before they become higher,” he added.

What’s more, he said, the continued healthy performance of the stock market put more cash into consumers’ pockets, allowing them to buy new homes, Krueger said.

One hub of strong buying activity in November was the Westside of Los Angeles, said Ron Wynn, a broker for Coldwell Banker-Jon Douglas, whose office handles sales in Westwood, Rancho Park, Cheviot Hills and nearby areas.

“We had a lot of trade-up clients who jumped from $350,000 to the $750,000 range,” Wynn said. “We had fewer homes come on the market at that time of year than we’ve had in the last 24 months. There is next to no inventory right now.”

Nationwide, sales of existing homes rose 6% to an annualized rate of 5.9 million units, reversing four straight months of declines, according to the National Assn. of Realtors.

NAR said the jump in home sales reflected a strong economy, low unemployment and subdued inflation.

The national median home sale price rose 3.3% year-over-year to $133,700.

In Southern California, the county with the biggest jump in November home prices was San Diego, with a 14.6% gain to $236,540 from $206,410. The second-biggest increase was in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, where a 10.7% gain to $133,910 was posted last month, up from $120,930 a year ago.

In Orange County, home prices saw an increase of 9.9% to $286,950 from $261,180 a year ago; and Ventura County saw a 9.7% jump to $253,880 from $231,530.

In Los Angeles County, home prices rose 6.1% to $202,120 from $190,500 a year ago.