California is seeing a rebound in the housing market as the number of new home sales is at an eight-month high, according to the California Association of Realtors®.

Existing, single-family home sales in October rose from both the first month and a year ago—the highest level since February.

Sales of existing family homes were 282,590 in October, up 1.9 percent from 277,410 in September and up 4.1 percent from 271,370 in October 2024.

Mortgage interest rates for a 30-year fixed home loan fell to 6.23 percent for the week ending Nov. 26, according to Freddie Mac. This is down from 6.26% the week before.

“The market is very sensitive to interest rates,” Oscar Vdeputy chief economist at Carr, tells Realtor.com. “It’s really hard to build momentum, especially since we’re not going into the home season. People are still worried about what’s going to happen with inflation.”

Carr data showed that the median home price rose from $883,640 in September to $886,960 in October – but October’s median price was up 0.2% year-on-year to $888,740. This is the first time in three months that it has declined.

California’s median list price runs well above the national median list price of $424,200 in October 2025 — up 0.4 percent from last year, but down month-over-month.

Among counties, Santa Barbara (26.7%) led the way with a 26.7% increase in home price growth.

It was followed by Trinity (22%) and Mono (18.6%) counties. In total, 23 California counties recorded average home price increases over the year to October 2025.

“Higher-priced homes in California tend to do a little better than more affordable homes, and one of the reasons for that is how the stock market can fluctuate,” Wei says.

Half (28) of all counties tracked by price movement from a year ago have a year-over-year decline, with Tuolumne (15.3%) falling the most, and Lisson (-11%) and Del Norte (-9.9%) posting the second and third steepest annual price declines in October.

Seasonal sales

Statewide, pending home sales rose 0.8 percent in October from a year earlier. That’s the third straight annual increase, but they slipped 1.2 percent from September.

Of the 53 counties tracked by Carr, 34 recorded year-over-year improvements in October — with half (16) growing by double digits. Trinity County (85.7%), located in the northwestern part of the state, topped the list with the highest sales growth from October 2024 to October 2025. It was followed by Leeson (58.3%) in the Northeast and Kings County (52.9%) in the Central Valley.

California housing inventory fell in October from last month, representing a transition to what is considered an “offseason.” The median number of days it took to sell a single-family home in the Golden State rose year-over-year by 32 days in October 2024 to October 2025, according to Carr.

“On a year-over-year basis, we’re seeing more active listings, but you have to wonder if that’s because of a slowdown in demand,” Wei explains.

“We’re going into the offseason in the offseason, so we’ll see how that goes,” Wee added. “We’re going to see some seasonal change. That means we’re going to see some slowdown in active listings for the next few months.”