Housing Market 2024: Avoid Buying a Home in These 4 California Cities
Written by
Heather Taylor
Edited by
Molly Sullivan
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The new year is still young, but predictions are already emerging about what to expect in the 2024 housing market.
One popular forecast involves determining which cities offer the most affordable housing compared to cities where home prices will continue to rise. This is especially of interest to buyers planning to purchase real estate in California. If you want to buy a home in California this year, which cities should future homeowners avoid?
Redding
In January 2024, CBS reported key findings from real estate firm CoreLogic detailing 20 U.S. cities where there are likely to be pricing gains for residential real estate. The top gainer was Redding, a city in Northern California.
According to CoreLogic’s predictions, home prices in Redding could rise as much as 7.3% in 2024. Zillow data shows the current average Redding home value is $375,981, down 0.2% over the past year.
San Francisco
San Francisco’s reputation for exorbitantly expensive real estate doesn’t have plans to decline significantly anytime soon.
Redfin reported San Francisco was among the least affordable housing markets in 2023. One of its key findings revealed San Francisco homebuyers with the typical local income would need to spend over 80% of their pay on monthly housing costs.
Though data from Realtor.com predicts San Francisco may experience a projected decline of -5.2% in home prices this year, it may not be enough of a decrease to sway buyers.
San Francisco ranks at sixth place in U.S. News’ 25 Most Expensive Places to Live in the U.S. 2023-2024. The Bay Area city also ranked in 10th place as one of the 10 most expensive cities in the world in the EIU’s Worldwide Cost of Living 2023 report.
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, which ranks in second place as one of the most expensive places to live in the U.S., continues to struggle with a high cost of living and lack of affordable housing.
The average Los Angeles home value is $918,087, according to Zillow data, which is up 3.5% over the past year. Insurance company The Zebra recently put Los Angeles in sixth place on its list of the 10 most expensive cities to own a home in for 2024, citing issues like a tight housing inventory and expensive property taxes as deterrents to interested buyers.
Los Angeles also took sixth place in the Worldwide Cost of Living 2023 report.
San Diego
There are several good items to watch out for in the San Diego 2024 housing forecast.
Data from Realtor.com indicates San Diego is among the top five Californian metros and is expected to have a 13.1% average sales growth. The city also emerged as a leader for veteran households utilizing VA loans to purchase homes last year. Realtor reported San Diego had a 16.5% share of VA loans, almost double the largest 100 market average.
However, housing price tags may simply be out of reach for many buyers. Zillow data shows the average San Diego home value is $960,202. This is up 7.1% over the past year and it is the highest value of any cities mentioned on this list.
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