San Diego County’s median home price ended the year down nearly $100,000 from its peak.

The median home price was $756,000 in December, CoreLogic reported Thursday. That’s down from the record-high $850,000 reached in May. The median includes all single-family homes, townhouses, condos and is a mix of new and resale homes.

There were 2,119 home sales in San Diego County in December — its lowest since January 2019. Homes that are put on the market are also taking much longer to sell. The median number of days on market was 30.1 in December, compared to eight days in March.

Rising mortgage rates were seen by analysts as the main culprit in the slowdown.

The county’s median is still 2.4 percent higher than it was a year ago, and Mark Goldman, a San Diego real estate analyst, said concerns that the local market will crash are not taking into account the high demand for homes here.

“Interest rates notwithstanding, the demand is still super strong,” he said. “I think we have more-or-less seen the bottom of the market.”

Goldman cited wage growth and the low local unemployment rate as reasons why San Diego might not see prices slide much more. Goldman reasoned that interest rates are primarily what are holding the market back, not the overall local economy. As those rates possibly decrease in the coming months, price drops might slow as buyers return to the market.

Here’s how the different home types fared in December:

Resale single-family: Median of $825,000, with 1,227 sales, and down from its peak of $950,000 in April.

Resale condo: Median of $620,000, down from its peak of $663,000 in May. There were 597 sales.

Newly built: Median of $820,000, with 258 sales. This figure combines single-family homes, townhouses and condos. Down from the peak of $890,500 in August.

There were 3,999 homes for sale from Nov. 28 to Dec. 25. That’s down from nearly 6,000 in July and August.

Here’s a look at the median prices across Southern Californian markets for December:

Los Angeles County: Monthly decrease of 1.1% to $775,000; down 3.1% for the year.
Orange County: Monthly decrease of 2.8% to $933,500; down 0.5% for the year.
Riverside County: Monthly increase of 1% to $549,000; up 2.4% for the year.
San Bernardino County: Monthly increase of 4.7% to $490,000; up 3.2% for the year.
San Diego County: Monthly decrease of 1.1% to $756,000; up 2.4% for the year.
Ventura County: Monthly decrease of 3.1% to $738,000; down 2.9% for the year.

Source: SDuniontribune by Phillip Molnar