For the first time ever, a major metropolitan area in U.S. has recorded a median sale price above $1 million for single-family homes. And that honor belongs to San Jose, which includes Sunnyvale and Santa Clara.
Behind San Jose at $1,085,000, which is 10.7 percent higher versus the same time last year, San Francisco, which includes Oakland and Hayward, remains the second most expensive major metropolitan area for single-family homes with a median sale price of $885,600 in the second quarter of 2016, which is up 9.5 percent year-over-year, followed by the Anaheim-Santa Ana area in Southern California ($742,200), Honolulu ($725,200), and San Diego at $589,900, according to the National Association of Realtors.
The five lowest-cost metro areas in the U.S. last quarter were Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio ($85,400); Cumberland, Maryland ($94,900); Decatur, Illinois ($95,600); Binghamton, New York ($105,500); and Rockford, Illinois ($109,000).
Think prices are too high….. move to Boardman Ohio.
I’m confused by the “Not seasonably adjusted” notation: is there really seasonal variability w/ house prices and if so why? I could see fluctuation in rental prices in places like Florida, but these are long term prices…why would spring vs. summer vs. winter matter?
There is indeed seasonality in the median sale price, in part driven by school year seasonality as families with children, which tend to buy larger homes, are less likely to move while school is in session which affects the mix of sales.
And once again, it’s good reminder that changes in the median should not be confused with changes in value.
Ah, I see: yes, there’s a term for (apparent) changes caused by compositional changes…can’t remember what it is, but anyway, thanks.
Palo Alto planner resigns due to high cost of housing. She cites unwillingness to create new housing the root cause.
Yeah but Frisco itself passed the million dollar mark a while back, and has always been more expensive the San Jose city. Who cares about these stoopid metro designations? As if SF has anything to do with Oakland, much less Hayward. (At least link it to San Mateo…shees.)
The San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA is composed of San Benito and Santa Clara Counties. 95+% of the population is SC county. Essentially, this is saying SC county median is above $1 million.
The San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA MSA is composed of San Francisco, Alameda, Marin, Contra Costa, and San Mateo Counties. The SF MSA is further divided into 3 divisions, including one with just SF and SM counties (namelink).
MSA is very meaningful if you want to understand the economy geography of a predominant job center, especially the labor market geography.
Yeah I agree, but again the editor writes these posts in a way that implies that San Jose is more expensive than SF. Sure, with those specific MSA’s. But city vs city it’s not accurate. Lumping SF with San Mateo is a more direct, though smaller, MSA. The larger one incl. east bay and Marin is interesting WHEN COMPARING it to a similarly large San Jose based MSA. Apples to apples.
Yeah, our first three sentences above (“For the first time ever, a major metropolitan area in U.S. has recorded a median sale price above $1 million for single-family homes. And that honor belongs to San Jose, which includes Sunnyvale and Santa Clara…[versus] San Francisco, which includes Oakland and Hayward”) are pretty ambiguous and certainly imply a city to city comparison…
Cute. You conveniently left off “Behind San Jose at $1,085,000, which is 10.7 percent higher versus the same time last year, San Francisco, which includes Oakland and Hayward, remains the second most expensive major metropolitan area”. Which indeed implies that San Jose is numerous uno. You should know most people think of the namesake city as the main barometer for costs. You could of at least made it clear that city to city SF is more expensive. I can guarantee you that some people skimming the article will make that mistake.
Perhaps that’s because we define “San Jose” in the sentence before? But again, as you quote, “major metropolitan area.”