L.A. Home Sales Soar as California’s Housing Market Defies Covid

When it comes to L.A. real estate, “Sunset” is still selling -- even nine months into the pandemic.

With interest rates at some of their lowest levels ever, many renters are reassessing their housing options, said Jason Oppenheim, star of “Selling Sunset,” a Netflix reality series featuring a team of brokers and the glitzy properties they’re selling across Los Angeles.

“Let’s face it, the 1% are doing very well right now, with markets at all-time highs and interest rates extremely low,” said Oppenheim, who runs his Oppenheim Group brokerage along Sunset Boulevard, which the show’s built around. “Houses are affordable right now and people want to get out of their cramped apartments.”

Los Angeles isn’t alone. Since Covid-19 was declared a public health emergency in March, home-buyers across California’s biggest cities have shown no let-up when it comes to betting on real estate.

Along with Los Angeles, San Jose, San Diego, Sacramento and San Francisco were the U.S. markets with the biggest jump in new mortgages during the third quarter, according to research by ATTOM Data Solutions, which tracked metro areas nationwide with at least 1 million people. And that happened in the three months that saw a record increase in the number of residential purchase mortgage originations in the country.

What Pandemic?

Nationally, lenders issued roughly 1.05 million home-purchase mortgages in the third quarter, up 25% from the same period in 2019, ATTOM’s data showed. New home loans accounted for about 34.5% of total mortgage activity last quarter.

“The housing market is still operating as if the recession brought on by the pandemic didn’t exist,” said Todd Teta, ATTOM’s chief product officer. “Buyers and owners, lured by low mortgage rates, kept lining up for loans at levels not seen in more than a decade.”

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Source: Bloomberg Wealth