In March, home sales were down nationally and in California. What about SoCal?

The residential real estate market continues to take a beating from high interest rates and slow demand. The Wall Street Journal reported that sales were down 5.9% month-over-month nationally in March 2025. The California Association of Realtors also released data showing sales were down 2.3% in California in March 2025, month-to-month.

The Inland Empire, and Southern California more broadly, are doing better than this, which may signal a stronger housing market out here as we head into the spring buying season.

Sales were up 23.4% month-to-month in the Inland Empire, and 22.3% in Southern California. See the chart below, which indexes sales in all three areas to December 2021 and tracks the average annual sales in each area relative to that month (contact me if you’re interested in the underlying data).

While sales have been flat in California with no upward trend, there has been a slight upward trend in the Inland Empire and Southern California, even into 2025 as of March.