Sam Shueh 

                                                                        Campbell, CA   5/23/16

Yesterday, I heard a young single professional told me that she is looking for a home between 1 to 1.1 million dollars? What, you got that much money? I came home and searched. OMG, she is looking for an average home in a so-so neighborhood. She told me west of San Jose near high tech neighborhoods one needs to pay 1.4M for a new single family home on a ~2,500 sf lot with no yard. There is a lottery on these new homes.

With high demand and a low inventory, San Francisco Bay Area housing prices continue to soar, setting historical record highs in April 2016 in Santa Clara (South San Francisco Bay) and San Mateo (Peninsula) counties.

The median price of a single-family home in Santa Clara County hit seven figures for the first time last month: $1 million exactly (see redline in the chart below). Prices were even crazier in San Mateo County, where the $1.2 millionaverage matched the previous record, set one year ago. It kind lost momentum. One needs to borrow $1 million dollars from the bank with a 20% down. Those wanting to pay less have learned to commute. I once drove 85 miles to commute each way. One year later I became a realtor.

Santa Clara County inventory (month) >2.5 month is healthy (Shueh)

The San Francisco East Bay (i.e. Alameda and Contra Costa counties) also saw a price increase. The Alameda County median home reaching $750,000, up more than 10%. East Bay has high income neighborhoods like Walnut Creek, Danville, San Ramon etc its Contra Costa County median home price grew to $525,000 (see green line). As long as there are jobs that pays well there are more people want to move to the area, but people who are well established elsewhere need to consider a change in life style. Elsewhere like San Francisco sellers learned the peak already passed and are reluctantly making adjustment. Few can afford that kind of stellar price.

Source: San Jose Mercury News