According to the World Property Journal, California's housing market data for January of 2016 showed the best monthly performance in three years for existing home sales!

Totaling 383,670, existing, single family home sales on a seasonally adjusted annualized rate is up 8.8% from January of 2015. Additionally, the median home sales price of $468,330 is up 9.2% from January of 2015. The median sales price is that point in which half of the homes sold for more and half of the homes sold for less. The median is influenced by the types of homes that are selling and a general change in values.

"While home sales increased year over year in January, they decreased minimally on a monthly basis, primarily due to a stronger than usual sales gain in December 2015, when the backlog of mortgage approvals caused by new loan disclosure rules were carried over from November," said California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.) President Pat "Ziggy" Zicarelli. "Looking ahead, the slowdown should be a transitory interruption to an otherwise positive trend."

The number of active listings has also increased for the first time in 5 months up 3.1% from December, statewide. Due to slower sales and the increase in the active listings, the Unsold Inventory Index rose from 2.8 months in December to 4.3 months, this is still a decline form 4.9 months in January of 2015. This indicates the number of months that are needed to sell the supply of homes on the market at the current sales rate.

"The fundamentals underlying the demand for housing fueled a healthy start to 2016," said C.A.R. Vice President and Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young. "The volatility in the equity market in the last few weeks, coupled with increasing uncertainty about the impact on economic growth, however, may lead potential home buyers and sellers to take a "wait and see" approach, which could erode housing market activity in the upcoming months."