May 2013 California Median Home Prices - $417350(California) & $719,610 (Bay Area), Interest Rate going up to 4.54%

The statewide median price of an existing, single-family detached home rose 3.6 percent from April’s median price of $402,760 to $417,350 in May. May’s price was up 31.9 percent from a revised $316,460 recorded in May 2012, marking 15 straight months of annual price increases and the eleventh consecutive month of double-digit annual gains. The year-over-year price increase was the highest since at least 1980, when C.A.R. began tracking this statistic.

For the overall San Francisco Bay Area, the median price was $719,610 , which is 5.0% higher than prior month's $685,530 ,and 30.7% higher than the same period last year of $$550,400.

Other key facts of C.A.R.’s May 2013 resale housing report include:

· The available supply of homes for sale dipped in May, and was down markedly from a year ago. The May Unsold Inventory Index for existing, single-family detached homes was 2.6 months, down from 2.8 months in April, and down from a revised 3.6 months in May 2012. The index indicates the number of months needed to sell the supply of homes on the market at the current sales rate. A six- to seven-month supply is considered normal.

· Homes sold slightly more quickly in May, with the median number of days it took to sell a single-family home decreasing to 27.1 days in May, down from 27.9 days in April and down from a revised 45.7 days for the same period a year ago.

· Mortgage rates ticked up in May, with the 30-year fixed-mortgage interest rate averaging 3.54 percent, up from 3.45 percent in April 2013 but was down from 3.80 percent in May 2012, according to Freddie Mac. Adjustable-mortgage interest rates in May averaged 2.55 percent, down from 2.63 in April and down from 2.74 percent in May 2012.

Click here for more analysis and summary of regional sales and price activity, as well as median price in each county. If you are interested in finding out the median price and sales data for a particular neighborhood or city, please send me an email to meimei@calMBArealty.com to let me know.