Condominiums in Southern California, long regarded as an entry-level housing play, are becoming within reach for more residents.
Condo prices across the region fell 6 percent year-over-year in February to a median $656,000, marking the steepest annual decline in 14 years, the Orange County Register reported, citing the latest data from Attom. The dip also puts prices 6 percent below February 2025 levels.
The slide stands in contrast to the single-family sector, where values have remained more resilient. The median house price hit $862,500 in February, down 1 percent from a year earlier and 3 percent below the record set in June 2025 of $885,000. That leaves single-family homes about 31 percent pricier than condos, signifying a historically wide gap.
Condos have been losing ground since mortgage rates began climbing in 2022, reshaping affordability math for lower-budget buyers, according to the Register. Over the past four years, Southern California condo prices are up 4 percent, representing a sharp slowdown from the 44 percent surge seen between 2018 and 2022. Single-family homes have also cooled, though they still posted a 15 percent gain over the same period.
Rising homeowner association fees, management issues and lender blacklists could be factors eroding condo appeal, per the Register. For many buyers, the supposed affordability advantage could be increasingly offset by risk and ongoing costs.
Even with prices falling, demand hasn’t necessarily followed. February recorded 2,993 condo sales, marking the third-slowest year for the month since 2005, down 6 percent year-over-year and 20 percent below the historical average. Over a longer horizon, the 178,129 condo sales in the four-year period of 2022 to 2026 represents a 25 percent drop compared to the prior four-year span from 2018 to 2022. Whether the Federal Reserve throws borrowers a lifeline with lower interest rates, as it did with three consecutive cuts late last year, remains to be seen.
— Chris Malone Méndez
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