January sales show Ventura County home prices continue to climb but slowly
The price of homes in Ventura County has flattened out a bit, but the median sale price in January was still higher than in any previous January.
There were 207 single-family homes sold in Ventura County in January, and the median price — the point at which half sold for more and half for less — was $875,000, according to the latest data from the California Association of Realtors. That was down 2.2% from the previous month, and 0.6% from January 2024.
Statewide, the median price in January for existing single-family homes was $838,850, down 2.6% from the previous month and up 6.3% from a year earlier.
Ojai had the highest median sale price in the county in January at $1.38 million followed by Thousand Oaks at $1.3 million. The lowest prices were in Fillmore at $735,000 and Santa Paula at $745,000.
Home prices in Ventura County, and most of California, have leveled off in the past couple of years after a period of extraordinary gains. From January 2019 to January 2022, the median price in Ventura County grew by 38%. Then in the next three years, from January 2022 to January 2025, the median price went up by just 2.9%.
Still, Ventura County remains one of the least affordable places in the United States for homebuyers. The National Association of Realtors affordability index, which factors in both home prices and wages, puts Ventura County second from the bottom in affordability, ahead of only Los Angeles.
Economists and other experts usually attribute Ventura County's high home prices to a shortage of housing supply. The California Lutheran University's Center for Economic Research and Forecasting released its annual report on the Ventura County economy on Feb. 20, in which it described a lack of housing as the biggest reason for the county's sluggish economic growth and shrinking labor force.
Tony Biasotti is an investigative and watchdog reporter for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tbiasotti@vcstar.com. This story was made possible by a grant from the Ventura County Community Foundation's Fund to Support Local Journalism.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: January sales show county home prices continue to climb but slowly
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