L.A.'s surging real estate prices have cooled, so why is nobody buying condos?

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Even as the relentless rise in Los Angeles housing costs seems to have paused, condominium sales slowed to a trickle this year.The number of condo units sold in the first two months slid to a more than 20-year low, according to figures from real estate data firm Attom.The median price of a condo fell nearly 5% in February compared with a year earlier, the property information provider said.Cooling condo sales may be an early sign of broader weakness in the market.

Stubbornly high home-loan rates, a decline in the construction of new units, and economic angst are all keeping people and property developers from doing more deals, said Richard Green, director of the Lusk Center for Real Estate at USC.“When the housing market softens, and it has, condos usually go softer faster than single-family homes,” he said.“People prefer single-family houses to condos.” California In December, L.A.-area rent prices hit a four-year low, while apartment vacancy rates hit a nearly five-year high, signaling a potential renter’s market in some neighborhoods.The median price of a Los Angeles County condo fell 4.5% in February, compared with a year earlier.

The median price of a single-family home fell 1.6%.Median rents in L.A.recently fell to a four-year low, a small sign of hope for tenants who felt like it was only a matter of time before they were priced out of the city.Condos, like other properties, shot up in value earlier in the pandemic but have been moving sideways in L.A.

for the last two years, with the median price meandering around $700,000 for a two-bedroom condominium.“The market is experiencing more of a pricing plateau than a major correction,” said Rob Barber, chief executive of Attom.

Business The supply of fresh rental units, which make up the bulk of new housing in Los Angeles, is petering out despite robust demand.Even as prices have flattened out, fewer deals...