The Southern California housing market is downshifting.

The average home price in the six-county region fell 0.3% from October to $869,288 in November, according to Zillow, marking the fourth consecutive month of declines.

“There is really no urgency from buyers,” said Mark Schlosser, a Compass agent in the Los Angeles area. “They are waiting.”

Prices are now 1.3% off their all-time high in July, but some economists say prospective home buyers and sellers shouldn’t expect home values to plunge — one reason behind the shift is the market typically slows in the fall and prices are still above where they were a year ago.

Still, more homes are hitting the market and mortgage interest rates remain high, creating a situation of slightly more supply and slightly less demand.

As a result, annual price growth has slowed. Last month, Southern California home prices were 4.3% higher than a year earlier, compared to a recent peak of 9.5% in April.

Orphe Divounguy, a senior economist with Zillow, said he expects annual price growth in Southern California to slow further next year, but not turn negative.

Though more home owners are choosing to sell their home, many others still don’t want to give up their ultra-low mortgage rates they took out during the pandemic.

Divounguy said there’s also California’s long-running problem of building too few homes for all the people who want to live here. In some places that build more, prices are already falling compared to last year.

In the Austin metro area, prices were down 3.4% in November, according to Zillow.

“Until we see inventory catch up, like we have in some of these big metros that built a ton of housing, I don’t think we are going to see negative prices,” he said.

Locally, Zillow forecasts home prices in November 2025 to be 1.5% higher than they are today across Orange and Los Angeles counties. In the Inland Empire, values should climb 2.7%

Though prices may keep rising, if incomes climb as well and mortgage rates fall, the housing market could become more affordable to people looking to break in.

Depending on the time frame one looks at, that’s already happening to some extent.

Inflation and economic growth play a major role in the direction of mortgage rates. In May, mortgage rates were above 7%, but then steadily declined to 6.08% in September, amid signs inflation was easing and the economy was weakening.

Rates started climbing again, following stronger than expected job growth and fear among investors that an incoming Trump administration would institute policies such as sweeping tariffs and tax cuts that would reignite inflation.

In late November, mortgages rates hit 6.84%, but have declined somewhat since, clocking in at 6.6% as of Dec. 12, according to Freddie Mac.

In a statement announcing the latest mortgage rate figures, Freddie Mac chief economist Sam Khater noted that “while the outlook for the housing market is improving, the improvement is limited given that homebuyers continue to face stiff affordability headwinds.”

Explore home prices and rents for November

Use the tables below to search for home sale prices and apartment rental prices by city, neighborhood and county.

Rental prices in Southern California

In the last year, asking rents for apartments in many parts of Southern California have ticked down.

Experts say the trend is driven by a rising number of vacancies, which have forced some landlords to accept less in rent. Vacancies have risen because apartment supply is expanding and demand has fallen as consumers worry about the economy and inflation.

Additionally, the large millennial generation is increasingly aging into homeownership, as the smaller Generation Z enters the apartment market.

Prospective renters shouldn’t get too excited, however. Rent is still extremely high.

In November, the median rent for vacant units of all sizes across Los Angeles County was $2,057, down 1.2% from a year earlier but 7.2% more than in November 2019, according to data from Apartment List.

Footage captures the moment a tornado tore through Scotts Valley in northern California. At least four people were injured after it struck a parking lot, with cars flipped and trees downed, local authorities said. California averages around 11 tornadoes per year, according to the National Weather Service.

The Walt Disney Co. has reached a California record $233 million settlement with Disneyland workers over a 2019 class-action wage theft lawsuit.

The settlement will provide back pay to workers at the Anaheim theme park, with interest dating back to the start of 2019, and comes as Anaheim is set to raise the minimum wage to $20.50 per hour at the start of 2025. Disney approved the preliminary settlement on Friday and it will be reviewed by a Superior Court judge on Jan. 17 before workers are notified.

The lawsuit alleged that in 2019, Disney did not adjust wages in accordance with the passage of Measure L, an Anaheim ballot proposition that required companies that received tax rebates from the city — namely Disney — to pay at least $15/hour.

Disney’s attorneys argued that it did not have tax rebate agreements with Anaheim and wasn’t subject to the terms of the law. A judge initially sided with Disney, but an appellate court reversed the decision after it was determined that such agreements were made with the city as part of a 1996 expansion deal that helped pave the way for the creation of Disneyland’s neighbor park, Disney’s California Adventure.

The California Supreme Court later turned down Disney’s request to hear the case, ending the legal battle.

The settlement is the latest victory for Disneyland workers after a multiyear labor campaign in which employees outlined the financial struggles they face despite being employed by the beloved “Happiest Place on Earth.” The park’s employees staged protests outside the entrance to the Disneyland Resort and shared stories of their struggles to reporters and on social media.

Their struggle even reached the attention of Walt Disney’s grandniece, Abigail E. Disney, who interviewed Disneyland employees for her 2022 documentary, “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales.” Some employees told her that they had to live out of their cars on the streets of Anaheim and struggled to even provide food for their families.

Along with the lawsuit, Disney workers pushed for stronger wages through their union reps at the Master Services Council, a coalition of four unions that represent over 14,000 Disneyland employees. After voting to authorize a strike, MSC members and negotiators reached a deal that raised base pay to $24/hour.

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