California cities will see home sales skyrocket in 2024

LOS ANGELES – The outlook for home buyers in the upcoming year appears exceptionally promising in Southern California, with a significant surge anticipated in most of the leading housing markets across the United States in 2024, as per a recent study.

In its 2024 National Housing Forecast, real estate firm Realtor.com evaluated the largest 100 metro areas based on their combined expected rates of sale and price growth. The findings indicate that five of the top eight metropolitan regions projected to experience double-digit growth in 2024 are situated in the Golden State.

Among these metro areas are Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura (18%), Bakersfield (13.4%), Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario (13.8%), and San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad (11%).

Economists anticipate a 9.2% increase in home sales in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim area.

On average, these five metros are forecasted to witness sales growth of 13.1% in 2024, in stark contrast to an average decline of 4.1% projected for other Californian metros within the largest 100 list.

Reflecting national trends, which are expected to hover around 25% below the norms observed during 2017-2019, sales in these Californian metros are also estimated to range between 20% and 35% lower than the typical pre-pandemic years of 2017 to 2019.

The data suggests that sales will remain relatively stagnant in the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley area and decrease in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara region.

Realtor observed an intriguing divide among California metros. While five California metros secured spots in the top 10 list of housing markets, none belonged to the Bay Area or Northern California.

Here’s a rundown of the top markets in California:

Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, California

San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, California

Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, California

Bakersfield, California

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, California

To compile these results, analysts at Realtor.com utilized data on the housing market and overall economy to forecast 2024 values for variables across the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan statistical areas by population size. Subsequently, these markets were ranked based on the combined forecasted growth in home prices and sales.