Ventura County's median single-family home price dropped to $925,000 in August, down 7.5% from the all-time high of $1 million set in May. The decline was first reported by the Ventura County Star, citing California Association of Realtors (CAR) data.
The drop follows a June in which Thousand Oaks, Moorpark and Newbury Park all carried median prices above $1 million, according to CAR data the Star reported in July. August sub-market figures for those cities have not been released.
The $925,000 countywide median was down 2.6% from July's $950,000 and down 1.3% from August 2025's $937,500, according to CAR's county sales data.
Sales volume fell too. A total of 292 existing single-family homes changed hands countywide in August, an 18% drop from July and a 12% decline from a year earlier.
California's broader market moved in the opposite direction. The statewide median rose to $901,420 in August, up 1.6% month-over-month and 0.1% year-over-year, while sales volume grew 2.4% from July.
Ventura County remains one of the hardest places in the country to buy a home. The National Association of Realtors has ranked the county as the second least affordable metro area in the nation, using a formula that weighs home prices against local wages.
That ranking was cited in a February 2026 Ventura County Star report on a California Lutheran University (CLU) study. About 22% of county residents age 16 and older earn less than $35,000 a year, too little to rent or buy at market rates, the CLU study found.
"Who should be concerned about this? Everybody … These are your workers leaving," CLU economist Jamshid Damooei said at a Feb. 19 conference examining the county's affordability gap.
The Star reported that county home prices have been largely stagnant for about three years. Prices surged during the early pandemic years but have declined slightly relative to inflation since 2021.
Within the county, Ojai posted the highest August median at $1.4 million across 11 sales. Santa Paula had the lowest at $712,000 across nine sales.
