Home sales can be a good indicator of the health of the state’s economy and housing markets. California home sales have rebounded strongly since the pandemic-driven plunge in the spring, with the last four months showing the biggest aggregate sales volume of any four-month period since at least 2011. It appears that the boosts from historically low mortgage rates and possibly the increased emphasis on working from home are outweighing the drag from depressed economic activity. The graph below shows unadjusted home sale counts according to Redfin, a national real estate brokerage. Sales are booked when they close, so monthly counts primarily reflect contracts that were signed in the previous month.
This next graph shows weekly counts for 2019 and 2020 using Redfin data for California’s twelve largest markets. The eight-week period ending in the first week of November showed a strikingly similar pattern to the same period in 2019, but with much higher overall sales volumes.
