Stay-at-home orders in April negatively impacted San Fernando Valley’s real estate market, according to a Southland Regional Association of Realtors report, which showed a 47 percent drop in the number of houses and condominiums sold for the month. The volume of listings and new open escrows also fell, while the median price of properties that closed escrow in April continued a long trend of price increases, at $740,000 — up 6.5 percent from the same month a year ago. By the end of April, there were 969 active listings on the Multiple Listing Service, marking a 23.2 percent decline over April 2019. Pending escrows – a barometer of future sales activity — totaled 297, representing a steep 55.8 percent decline year over year for April. In April, 263 single family homes closed, a 46.9 percent drop from April 2019. Also, only 82 condos changed hands, a 47.1 percent drop from the year before. “Given the near complete shutdown of society, the plunge in sales was fully expected,” said association Chief Executive Tim Johnson in a statement. However, as association president Nancy Troxell Carnahan put it: “I suspect the May numbers will reflect how owners really feel about listing their home in the middle of the pandemic.” Carnahan added that, even prior to the coronavirus spread, the number of listings had been steadily dropping, as April marked the 11th consecutive month of declines.
