Home prices continue to soar
Bay Area homebuyers have begun to settle back into neighborhoods closer to their offices, driving up prices in Alameda and Santa Clara counties.
The median sale price for a single-family home in the Bay Area reached $1.13 million in September, a slight decline from this summer’s record highs. Homebuyers’ craving for suburban space continued, but cooled in the outer suburbs of Contra Costa and Marin counties, according to CoreLogic data.
Economists and agents expect a robust market heading into the holiday season, with low interest rates and millennial techies looking to buy.
The relatively short supply of homes on the market means buyers are acting fast.
“What does come up, we bid on it,” said Fremont agent Sunil Sethi, “and we’re never alone.”
The median price for an existing single-family home in the Bay Area jumped 16% from last September, according to CoreLogic.
Home prices rose in all nine Bay Area counties. But the biggest gains were in Alameda, where prices leaped 17.2% from the previous year to $1.13 million, and Santa Clara, up 14% to $1.51 million.
Contra Costa County prices grew 9.3% to $820,000; San Mateo increased 8.3% to a regionhigh $1.79 million; and San Francisco rose 3.1% to $1.67 million.
Overall sales, including new units and condos, ticked up 6% from the previous September, suggesting buyers and sellers have eased their concerns about visiting and showing homes during the pandemic.
The Bay Area market has seen fewer highs and lows during the pandemic than other parts of the country, said CoreLogic economist Selma Hepp.
“We were really expecting, at this point, for sales to be lower,” Hepp said. “Demand
is still there.”
Sales did decline sharply in Marin and Napa counties, while closings grew by double-digit percentages in Santa Clara County and San Francisco, suggesting homebuyers are returning to urban and suburban homes near job centers.
In the East Bay, buyers saw more choices on the market in El Cerrito and Pinole. But agents planted fewer for sale signs in Clayton, Martinez and Walnut Creek. Home inventory also dropped in Fremont and Newark from the previous year, according to Bay East Association of Realtors. The median price in Berkeley in September reached $1.6 million, and nearly touched $1.5 million in Fremont, according to local data.
California Association of Realtors chief economist Jordan Levine told East Bay brokers that economic conditions are expected to improve with more people moving back to full-time work and continued low interest rates headed into 2022.