If you own a home in the Beach Cities or on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, or you are looking at one, you may have seen this week that U.S. home prices fell for the first time in more than three years. Redfin’s figure is a median U.S. sale price of $389,601 for the four weeks ending October 25, 2026, down 0.1 percent from a year earlier, which is about $390. Our CRMLS Matrix pull for the same four weeks shows South Bay prices level as well: in Redondo Beach the median was $1,525,000 against $1,500,000 a year earlier, with price per square foot at $821 against $832, and on the Peninsula price per square foot was $830 against $827. What separates the South Bay is supply. Nationally there are 4.5 months of homes for sale; in the Beach Cities there are 2.1 months and on the Peninsula 2.7, on our November 4, 2026 count. The one national signal that has reached part of the South Bay is contracts: signed contracts fell 14 percent in the Beach Cities over those four weeks and rose 14 percent on the Peninsula.
Chhabria Real Estate Company has sold thousands of homes on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, the Beach Cities and the Greater South Bay since 1984.
What did Redfin measure, and how big is a 0.1% drop?
Redfin’s weekly housing market report, released October 29, 2026, measures the median sale price of homes that closed across the country in a rolling four-week window. For the four weeks ending October 25 it was $389,600, down 0.1% from the same weeks of 2025, and the prior week was down 0.2%. A tenth of a percent on $389,600 is about $390, less than the difference between two similar houses on the same block. The figure is notable because it is the first year-over-year decline after more than three years of gains, not because of its size.
The same release carries the larger numbers. Pending sales, which count homes that went into contract, were down 15.9% from a year earlier, the lowest level in Redfin’s weekly data going back to 2021. The median monthly housing payment was $2,786, up 10.7%, because the weekly average mortgage rate Redfin tracks was 7.32%. Homes took a median of 50 days to sell, 21.5% of listings carried a price cut, and there were 4.5 months of supply, up from 4 a year earlier. Prices that hold still while contracts fall by a sixth is the shape of the national market this fall.
Is South Bay inventory building the way it is nationally?
Not to the same degree. Months of inventory is the number of active listings divided by the average number of monthly sales; it is how long the homes for sale today would take to sell at the recent pace if nothing new came on. On November 4, 2026 we counted 202 active listings in the Beach Cities (Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach) against an average of 98 sales a month from August through October, which is 2.1 months, or about nine weeks. On the Peninsula it was 180 listings against 66 sales a month, or 2.7 months, about 12 weeks. Nationally, at 4.5 months, the same exercise takes about 19 weeks.
The softer corner of the South Bay is condominiums and townhomes on the Peninsula, at 4.3 months, close to the national figure. Single-family homes on the Peninsula sit at 2.5 months and in the Beach Cities at 1.8.
Are South Bay homes taking longer to sell?
No, they are selling slightly faster than a year ago. Over the twelve months to October 31, 2026, the median home in the Beach Cities went into escrow in 22 days, against 25 the year before, and on the Peninsula in 29 days, against 31.5. The national median Redfin reports for the four weeks ending October 25 is 50 days.
South Bay sellers are also giving up a little less from their first asking price. In the Beach Cities, the median sale closed at 98.4 percent of the original list price, up from 98.0 percent, which works out to about $16,000 under asking for every $1 million. On the Peninsula it was 97%, up from 96.3%, about $30,000 under asking for every $1 million. Redfin’s national 98.3% is measured against the final list price, after any reductions, so it is a different measure from ours and the two are not set side by side here.
Are South Bay home prices falling?
Over the twelve months to October 31, 2026, the median sale price in the Beach Cities was $1,950,000, up 1.3% from $1,925,000, and on the Peninsula $1,960,000, up 1% from $1,940,000. A median moves for two reasons: prices change, or a different mix of homes sells. Price per square foot is the check. In the Beach Cities it rose 2.6%, from $1,014 to $1,040, so prices there moved up modestly. On the Peninsula it fell 1.3%, from $826 to $815, while the median rose; the Peninsula’s higher median came from which homes sold, not from homes selling for more.
Over the same four weeks Redfin measured, the Beach Cities median jumped 17%, from $1,899,500 to $2,225,000. That is not a price change. Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach made up 53 of the 92 Beach Cities sales in the 2026 window against 35 of 84 a year earlier, and 32 homes sold for $3 million or more against 20. Inside Redondo Beach, the one market with steady volume in both windows, the median was $1,525,000 against $1,500,000 and price per square foot $821 against $832: level. On the Peninsula the four-week median was $2,000,000 against $1,950,000, with price per square foot at $830 against $827: also level. Four weeks of sales, about 90 on each side, is a small sample, and a few large closings can move a median that far.
If you own here, level prices with tight supply means the value you could sell at today is about where it was a year ago. If you are buying, the price is not coming down to meet the rate; the rate is the part that changed.
Where in the South Bay are prices down?
Over the twelve months to October 31, 2026, the lower medians are in San Pedro, Torrance and the Peninsula’s condominiums and townhomes. In San Pedro the median was $793,750, down 8.2% from $865,000. In Torrance it was $1,134,000, down 3.1% from $1,170,000. Condominiums and townhomes on the Peninsula had a median of $852,600, down 9% from $937,000, on 133 sales against 124. Redondo Beach and Rancho Palos Verdes were unchanged at $1,525,000 and $1,750,000.
At the other end, the Palos Verdes Estates median rose 12% to $2,900,000, but price per square foot there rose 1.6%, from $1,055 to $1,072 for single-family homes, so most of that increase is larger or more valuable homes selling, not the same homes selling for more.
Are contracts falling in the South Bay the way they are nationally?
In the Beach Cities, yes. Over the four weeks ending October 25, 2026, 74 homes went into contract in the Beach Cities, against 86 in the same four weeks of 2025, down 14%. Redfin’s national pending sales were down 15.9% over the same weeks. On the Peninsula the count went the other way: 56 contracts against 49, up 14.3%. Across both, 130 against 135, down 3.7%.
A contract count over four weeks is a short window, and one count is not a trend. A contract that fell apart in 2025 may since have had its contract date cleared, which would leave the year-earlier count slightly low. The direction in the Beach Cities matches the national direction; the size of it is worth watching through November before reading much into it.
What this looks like if you own, and if you are buying
The national headline is about price, and South Bay prices are level, as they are nationally. The change that matters for a South Bay household is the payment. Freddie Mac’s weekly survey put the 30-year fixed rate at 7.18% on November 5, 2026, against 6.22% a year earlier. On a $1,500,000 loan, that is $10,162 a month in principal and interest against $9,207, about $955 more a month for the same house at the same price. On a $1,000,000 loan it is about $637 more.
If you own here, fewer homes are competing with yours than in most of the country. At the recent pace of sales, every home for sale in the Beach Cities would sell in about nine weeks and every home on the Peninsula in about 12; across the country it would take about 19.
Buyers on the Peninsula are still signing contracts at about last fall’s pace: 56 homes went into contract in the four weeks ending October 25, against 49 a year earlier. In the Beach Cities fewer buyers signed, 74 against 86, so a Beach Cities listing may wait a little longer for its buyer.
In our experience, the Beach Cities listings that sell in this market are strategically priced to capture the buyer who is shopping at 7.18%, not still hoping to replicate last spring’s comparables.
If you are buying, prices are not falling here the way a national headline might suggest, and the supply of homes is about half the national level. In our experience, the buyers who do well in a market like this one know their payment at today’s rate before the first showing, and treat a rate drop as a bonus rather than a plan.
This post is a study of market data against current economic data. It is not real estate, tax, lending, financial or investment advice and not a recommendation to buy, sell, hold, list or price any property. Stats presented here represent the city or area as a whole, not any one individual property. We do our very best to supply facts drawn from official sources so that the information you find here is reliable and accurate.
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