March 2021: California Median Home Price Soars to All-time High of $758,990

[dimondpark]

The governor is understandably busy but he promised 3.5 million new housing units when he ran for office and I havent heard anything from him on this issue since early last year---the pandemic is already starting to subside but housing is our true achilles' heel.

It seems like the only units being built in urban areas are for wealthy people, otherwise new, affordable homes for middle class families, which are already scarce, are at least a 90-minute drive away from the city.

What to do?

Anyway, Here is price and sales data for the Bay Area, Central Coast and Southern California.

March 2021 Median Home Price(Sales Growth 12-month period)
$758,990 State of California(+19.7%)

$1,985,000 San Mateo County(+29.7%)
$1,755,000 San Francisco County(+56.1%)
$1,627,500 Marin County(+16.3%)
$1,600,000 Santa Clara County(+44.3%)
$1,163,000 Alameda County(+45.1%)
$1,100,000 Santa Cruz County(+41.9%)
$1,075,000 Santa Barbara County(+47.2%)
$1,025,000 Orange County(+30.4%)
$931,000 Monterey County(+27.0%)
$929,000 Napa County(+52.3%)
$920,000 Contra Costa County(+34.6%)
$800,000 San Diego County(+18.1%)
$770,750 Ventura County(+15.6%)
$765,000 Sonoma County(+36.4%)
$737,500 San Luis Obispo(+19.4%)
$668,220 Los Angeles County(+26.2%)
$549,000 Solano County(-3.7%)
$535,000 Riverside County(+22.5%)
$412,000 San Bernardino County(+19.7%)

The rest of the state:
https://www.car.org/aboutus/mediacen...s/mar2021sales

[Steely Dan]

Well shit, I guess my dream of someday moving to the bay area can finally be put in the coffin

[dimondpark]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Well shit, I guess my dream of someday moving to the bay area can finally be put in the coffin

these prices are outrageous.

[Camelback]

The crazy thing about San Mateo County is that it has a population of about 800,000. It's not like it is a small lightly populated rural county with a wealthy enclave skewing the median price.

[Yuri]

I can't even make sense of such high numbers. As you've said, we're talking about big counties here.

São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are two most expensive cities in Brazil, and the m² (10.8 sq feet) is on February 2021 at R$ 9,000 (US$ 1,666) and R$ 9,500 (US$ 1,750) respectively.

So, a sizeable 80 m² (860 sq feet) place in those cities would be sold for R$ 730,000 or US$ 136,000 average.

[Camelback]

This modest house in San Bruno, San Mateo County is situated next door to a large freeway interchange and directly under the departing flightpath of SFO has a Zillow estimate range (Zestimate) of almost $1.36M - $1.56M, with a 30-day change of +$33,637!!

https://goo.gl/maps/dRDbKDqLsd5B343N9

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by Camelback

This modest house in San Bruno, San Mateo County is situated next door to a large freeway interchange and directly under the departing flightpath of SFO has a Zillow estimate range (Zestimate) of almost $1.36M - $1.56M, with a 30-day change of +$33,637!!

https://goo.gl/maps/dRDbKDqLsd5B343N9

Where are you seeing that price? I see the Zestimate at $940k. Which is still insanely expensive for a 2 bdrm 740 sq ft house in that location.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by Camelback

This modest house in San Bruno, San Mateo County is situated next door to a large freeway interchange and directly under the departing flightpath of SFO has a Zillow estimate range (Zestimate) of almost $1.36M - $1.56M, with a 30-day change of +$33,637!!

https://goo.gl/maps/dRDbKDqLsd5B343N9

That cannot be a worse place. Planes barely miss this house to touchdown. US$ 1 million to live there?!?!

[bnk]

Originally Posted by Camelback

This modest house in San Bruno, San Mateo County is situated next door to a large freeway interchange and directly under the departing flightpath of SFO has a Zillow estimate range (Zestimate) of almost $1.36M - $1.56M, with a 30-day change of +$33,637!!

https://goo.gl/maps/dRDbKDqLsd5B343N9

For that little POS? Insane.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Camelback

This modest house in San Bruno, San Mateo County is situated next door to a large freeway interchange and directly under the departing flightpath of SFO has a Zillow estimate range (Zestimate) of almost $1.36M - $1.56M, with a 30-day change of +$33,637!!

https://goo.gl/maps/dRDbKDqLsd5B343N9

No way is someone paying so much for that house.

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by yuriandrade

That cannot be a worse place. Planes barely miss this house to touchdown. US$ 1 million to live there?!?!

Actually this house is just above where the international planes take off. It's at the very end of the runways 28L and 28R. Planes land on the other side of 28L and 28R, on the Bay side.

[pj3000]

I can’t fathom that people actually pay those prices for a house like that.

Living in Pittsburgh and part time in Miami, where I bought when it was still cheap, I have no real comprehension of how those types of prices are the norm.

[craigs]

Those house prices are the primary reason I will not be returning to San Francisco.

[Camelback]

Originally Posted by homebucket

Where are you seeing that price? I see the Zestimate at $940k. Which is still insanely expensive for a 2 bdrm 740 sq ft house in that location.

Oh, sorry man. It's the house in the left of the google street image. Sorry about that, I thought I had it centered on the property. It's 913 7th, not 917.

From the imagery, it looks like 917 has a pool and a granny suite/flat and 913 does not. 913 does have more square footage to the house (might be permitted, or un-permitted). If it's un-permitted that additional square footage would most likely have to be torn down if a renovation were to get started there.

[Camelback]

Originally Posted by craigs

Those house prices are the primary reason I will not be returning to San Francisco.

If you're not returning, where is it that you would want to return to? Also, what part of The Bay were you in? What is the desired square footage, bedrooms, bathrooms, amenities (double vanities, pool, walk in closet(s) wet bar, granny suite?

Sorry if it's intrusive, that's the sales person of me getting involved and the Bay Area has always been a curiosity of mine.

[dimondpark]

I can understand wealthy areas being more expensive, that's to be expected, but as I eluded to earlier, the biggest issue I have is supposedly 'working class' areas becoming too expensive for locals to afford.

West Oakland is a neighborhood where you once had poor people, drug dealers, prostitutes and mentally ill people walking the streets, I only drove through there if I needed to take a short cut to the Bay Bridge and NEVER at night, now the area still has all of the bad things, but it's become overrun with techies and hipsters priced out of San Francisco. The result is this:

https://www.estately.com/CA/West_Oak...der=price_desc

This^ is still a *VERY* high crime area. I remember when homes in West Oakland were barely $100,000 and you couldnt pay people to even go there--now there are Teslas and Land Rovers all over the place together with the scrapers blasting heavy bass and two-dollar hoes walking around lol. A homeless encampment(the homeless situation there is awful btw) next to a gated yuppie condo compound. Such an odd mix.

But these are times in which we now live.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by dimondpark

I can understand wealthy areas being more expensive, that's to be expected, but as I eluded to earlier, the biggest issue I have is supposedly 'working class' areas becoming too expensive for locals to afford.

West Oakland is a neighborhood where you once had poor people, drug dealers, prostitutes and mentally ill people walking the streets, I only drove through there if I needed to take a short cut to the Bay Bridge and NEVER at night, now the area still has all of the bad things, but it's become overrun with techies and hipsters priced out of San Francisco. The result is this:

https://www.estately.com/CA/West_Oak...der=price_desc

This^ is still a *VERY* high crime area. I remember when homes in West Oakland were barely $100,000 and you couldnt pay people to even go there--now there are Teslas and Land Rovers all over the place together with the scrapers blasting heavy bass and two-dollar hoes walking around lol. A homeless encampment(the homeless situation there is awful btw) next to a gated yuppie condo compound. Such an odd mix.

But these are times in which we now live.

That sounds like regular ol' gentrification, though. But $1.3 million to live in a shack sandwiched between an interstate overpass and an airport runway? Hard pass.

[bossabreezes]

That part of Oakland is legit a cesspool and likely won't be getting much better any time soon. Sure, there are $2M homes but the homeless camps, used needles, trash, and vermin are probably only going to get worse before they get better.

[Crawford]

I have a buddy in Burlingame, which is actually a nice community, but the prices are absolute insanity. And I'm pretty sure Burlingame is a "good deal" compared to ground zero of Silicon Valley around Palo Alto. Burlingame is traditionally more of a SF commuter suburb than a Silicon Valley outpost.

Also, the prices in Marin are crazytown, because there's no way tech is driving anything. No one is driving from Mill Valley to Menlo Park. There aren't many local high paying jobs, at all.

And, yeah, some of the East Bay prices are eye-opening. Most of flatlands Oakland is still pretty dumpy. I've driven that whole stretch of Intl. Blvd. and it's straight-out ghetto. Hayward and Union City aren't nice. But look at that Alameda median!

[bossabreezes]

^^Marin actually has a tech presence on its own. It's definitely no Santa Clara county, but it still- tech companies have a presence there. I believe Glassdoor is based in Mill Valley actually.

Also, Marin county is absolutely beautiful so I think that probably weighs into its pricing. Not to mention, its very close to SF and is definitely full of commuters. Don't forget that SF itself is Tech Dominated and has a billion VC startups with high payed employees. Belvedere and Sausalito are cream of the crop, can't get much better in terms of beauty and quality of life, IMO. I'd love to live in the middle of giant coast redwood forests, even if for $5M. Also, Marin county doesn't seem to suffer from the wildfire risk that others face, mainly because its constantly drenched in fog during the summer.