Bay Area median home prices increase nearly 16%

[Spartan]

As the spring housing market began heating up, the median home price blew past the $2 million mark in two Bay Area counties.

In Santa Clara County, the median home price hit $2 million for the first time — a record-breaking figure that surpasses even pandemic-era highs, according to April data from the California Association of Realtors.

Meanwhile, in San Mateo County, the median sales price was $2.15 million — down from its peak of $2.4 million in April 2022, but up 9.1% from April 2023, when the median price was $1.97 million.

In Marin County, the median price for a detached home was $1.7 million in April, down from $1.96 million in March and $1.79 million in April 2023, the association said. The county was the only one in the Bay Area to have a year-over-year decline.

The Marin County assessor’s office, which released its April data on Thursday, reported a $1.69 million median for detached homes that month. Its figure for March was $1.96 million, and its figure for April 2023 was $1.7 million. The county data tend to differ slightly from the Realtors’ association.

Marin’s median price has topped the $2 million threshold twice, in April and May of 2022, according to the county assessor’s office.

Across the nine-county Bay Area, prices were up 15.5% from last year in April, reaching a median sales price of $1.44 million. The median price climbed to $1.4 million in Alameda County, $940,000 in Contra Costa County, and $1.8 million in San Francisco.

Sales of previously-owned homes increased 23% from last year, as the spring selling season hit its peak, even with 30-year fixed mortgage rates hovering around 7%.

“Interest rates aren’t floating down to where buyers want them to be, even though they have been waiting and waiting and waiting,” said Janelle Boyenga, a real estate agent in Los Gatos. “They’ve decided, how long can I wait for?”

In the East Bay, Amanda Piñero and Kenny Handel are weighing whether a bigger place would be worth giving up their pandemic-era interest rate.

In 2017, the couple, in their early 30s, moved from Austin, Texas, to Berkeley, and in 2021, they bought a 720-square-foot condo. But space has been feeling tight lately, and they’ve started looking for a new place. Recently, they toured a 1,000-square-foot home in the Rockridge neighborhood with a small backyard for their dog, Willie Nelson.

“I struggle to let go of our current interest rate,” Piñero said. “Trying to get anything else could make us house poor.”

Kenny Handel and Amanda Piñero stand outside of an open house they toured in Rockridge on May 25, 2024. They have been browsing for homes in the area for the last few months, but have been deterred by high interest rates. (Kate Talerico/Bay Area News Group)

 

Just a few percentage points increase in interest rates can add hundreds — and sometimes thousands — onto the monthly cost of a mortgage. A buyer putting 20% down on $1 million house with a 7.10% rate would pay a monthly mortgage of $5,322, versus $3,373 with a pandemic-era rate of 3%.

Calculations like this are what have kept so many sellers on the sidelines. But as the year stretches on, many find they can’t wait any longer.

“As time goes on, life goes on as well,” said Oscar Wei, an economist for the California Association of Realtors. “People can only delay a home sale for so long.”

The upshot is that inventory has grown this spring — new active listings in the nine-county Bay Area

[Aquaman]

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[stonks_pro]

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almost impossible to own a home in good school district 

[Guest]

Congrats on equity anna

[Pavanonline]

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