San Diego home prices are rising, but will it last?

San Diego County’s home price continued to rise in February but was still off from its peak.

The median home price was $886,500 in February, according to an Attom Data Solutions report released Thursday, up $20,000 from the previous month. The median, a combination of all closed sales of single-family houses, townhouses and condos, hit a high of $915,000 in June.

Prices dropped in the fall, but have been steadily increasing ever since. The median home price, the point at which half the homes sold for more and half for less, is now up 4.1% annually.

Mark Goldman, a real estate analyst with C2 Financial Corp., said home value growth seemed to have slowed, or at least stabilized, because of higher interest rates and still-high prices.

“Does it mean prices will go down? I’m not really expecting that. What we see is more of a stabilization,” he said, of prices staying at, or near, current levels. “For a home price to go up, people have to be able to afford them.”

The interest rate for a 30-year, fixed rate loan was 6.76% in the last week of February, said Freddie Mac. Assuming 20% down, that would would make for a monthly payment of $4,850 — nearly double the average rent in San Diego County. The rate was up to 6.83% this week.

There were 1,894 home sales in San Diego County in February, down 5.6% from the previous year and near historic lows  In December 2023, there were 1,629 sales, the lowest Attom has data for going back to 2005.

Goldman said he felt concern that President Donald Trump’s trade policy — and its effects on the overall economy — may play some role in slowing sales going forward.

He said much of a home purchase comes down to confidence, especially a buyer’s belief that they will be able to keep a job to pay the mortgage. Consumer sentiment studies have fallen sharply since the president’s second month in office. Economists often debate the validity of studies because they often don’t reflect the reality of how well an economy is performing.

San Diego County real estate agent Jan Ryan said homes that are at, or below, the median home price sell quickly. She listed a four-bedroom, 2,128-square-foot home in Ramona for $779,000 at the start of April, and it was off the market in a week. Ryan said the sellers quickly accepted an offer that was $20,000 over the asking price.

Home inventory has slightly increased, at least compared to some points in the past four years. There were roughly 4,245 homes for sale in San Diego County in February, according to the Redfin Data Center. That’s down from a peak of nearly 6,000 in summer 2022, but up from a low of 2,425 in January 2021.

Attom said the median single-family home price was back to $1 million in February, a level it hadn’t hit since July. The median for townhouses and condos was $690,000, down from a high of $716,000, also in July. Attom combines newly built and resale homes in its median calculations.

Most of Southern California followed a similar pattern in February of some growth, but not as rapid as recent years.

Here’s a look at the median prices across the region:

Los Angeles County: Up 2.7% in a month to a median of $900,000; up 4% in a year.

Orange County: Monthly rise of 4% for a median of $1.2 million; a rise of 4.3% in a year.

Riverside County: Up 1.7% in a month for a median of $610,000; up 1.4% annually.

San Bernardino County: Monthly drop of 0.9% for a median of $530,000; up 6% annually.

San Diego County: Up 2.3% monthly to a median of $886,500; up 4.1% year-over-year.

Ventura County: Up 4.8% monthly for a median of $875,000; up 3.9% annually.