Home prices in Ventura County dipped again in August and have been stagnant for about the past three years.
The median price of all existing single-family homes sold in the county in August was $925,000, according to the latest data from the California Realtors Association
. That was down 2.6% from the month before and down 1.3% from a year earlier. It's also down 7.5% from May, when the county's median home price hit an all-time high of $1 million.
The median is the halfway point, at which half of sales are at a higher price and half are lower. Statewide, the median sale price in August was $901,420, which was up 1.6% from the previous month and up 0.1% from a year earlier.
Ventura County is an unusually expensive place to buy a home – when factoring
in the area's wages as well as its home prices, it has been ranked as the second least affordable market in the country. Prices climbed rapidly in the early years of the pandemic, but since 2021, the median has declined slightly relative to inflation.
Sales volume also declined in August. There were 292 sales of existing single-family homes in Ventura County, down 18% from the month before and down 12% from a year earlier. Statewide, sales volume grew slightly, up 2.4% from the month before and up 1.4% from a year before.
The most expensive place to buy a home in Ventura County last month was in Ojai, where the median price of 11 sales was $1.4 million. The lowest median price in the county was $712,000 in Santa Paula, where there were nine single-family homes sold.
Tony Biasotti is an investigative and watchdog reporter for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tbiasotti@vcstar.com. This story was made possible by a grant from the Ventura County Community Foundation's Fund to Support Local Journalism. The foundation plays no role in story selection. The Star retains full editorial control.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Ventura County home prices dropped in August
