Bay Area Housing Prices at a Record High
As reported in The Mercury News, home prices in the Bay area continue rising at full speed in a market with low housing supply.
The median price of a single-family home in the region was $779,000, up 9.7 percent from last year, as was recently reported in the CoreLogic real estate information service.
June data shows that prices in the eight counties have risen for 63 consecutive months. Since the median price has not come down as of 2012, some homeowners are leaving the area.
“In 27 years, I’ve never seen such sustained demand and appetite by buyers,” said Chris Trapani, CEO and founder of the Sereno Group. “To see prices escalating at this point in the summer is remarkable, in my view.”
Sales were still up even with inventory falling to historic lows. They rose 3 percent across the region on a year-over-year basis. In Santa Clara County, they rose 7.3 percent, while Alameda County was up 7.1 percent and Contra Costa County rose 4.7 percent.
New home construction continues to lag — sales of new single-family homes, condos and townhomes were 35.6 percent below their June average of the last 30 years but if overall inventory levels tighten further in the coming months, CoreLogic research analyst Andrew LePage said,
“We then could see sales decline year-over-year — and not for any lack of demand, but for a lack of available homes.” In the East Bay, agent William Doerlich has witnessed clients look for affordability at Vallejo in Solano County. Buyers are seeking a decent price and architecturally distinguished houses that “are unique, that have a certain feel. You can get that in Berkeley and Oakland, too. But you’ve got it in Vallejo at half the price point.”
His clients Henrique Bagulho and Katherine Du Tiel, professional photographers based in San Francisco, wanted an investment property in Vallejo and found a 1924 prairie-style cottage with a view of the Napa hills.
The cottage listed for $379,900, got four offers, but Bagulho and Du Tiel won out, bidding $410,500. They ended up moving in.
Most people seem to think we’re nuts to move to Vallejo,” said Bagulho, “but San Francisco has become too desirable and lost a little bit of its charm. So we’ll probably be doubling our money” — they are about to sell their 1,500-square-foot home in San Francisco’s Miraloma Park — “and we’ll be living in nice quiet Vallejo, less of a hipster city. I like it. I will be able to bike to Napa.”
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