Home prices and sales volume generally rose across California in March when compared to the previous month and a year ago. The Bay Area, however, went against the trend and registered a drop in annual sales due to tight inventory.
The state's median home price rose 8.9% from the prior month and 4% from March 2015, according to data collected by the California Association of Realtors (C.A.R). Sales are up across California by 5.5% from February and 5.7% from March of the prior year. The number of days a single-family home stayed on the market fell to 29.9 days in March from 41.4 days in February and 34.2 days in March 2015.
San Francisco and Bay Area cities were the most expensive in the state. The median price of a Bay Area single-family home rose 4.2% from last year to $761,160. San Francisco had an average price/SF of $879 in March (S.F. saw some signs of cooling off, with prices dropping slightly in March). San Mateo was second with $763/SF and Santa Clara was third with $625/SF. Sales in the Bay Area dropped 8.1% from March 2015.
C.A.R. president Pat “Ziggy” Zicarelli attributed Bay Area performance to tight inventory. He added sales are down double digits in seven out of nine counties in the Bay Area, with the exception of Solano and Sonoma counties. Those counties are more affordable and didn’t see the inventory shortage of the wider Bay Area.
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