Sep 2013 California Median Home Prices - $428,810 (California) & $687,260 (Bay Area)

The median home price declined in September for the first time since February but was still higher on a year-to-year basis. The statewide median price of an existing, single-family detached home was down 2.8 percent from August’s median price of $441,330 to $428,810 in September. September’s price was 24.4 percent higher than the revised $344,760 recorded in September 2012, marking the 15th straight month of double-digit annual gains.

For the overall San Francisco Bay Area, the median price was $687,260 , which is 2.5% lower than prior month's $704,830 ,and 24.0% higher than the same period last year of $554,450.

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

• The available supply of existing, single-family detached homes for sale rose in September to 3.6 months, up from August’s Unsold Inventory Index of 3.1 months. The index was 3.7 months in September 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 typical in a normal market.

• The median number of days it took to sell a single-family home also increased to 29.6 days in September from 28.8 days in August, but was down from a revised 39.2 days in September 2012.

• Mortgage rates have been on the rise for the past five months, with the 30-year, fixed-mortgage interest rate averaging 4.49 percent, up from 4.46 percent in August 2013 and up from 3.47 percent in September 2012, according to Freddie Mac. Adjustable-mortgage interest rates in September averaged 2.67 percent, up from 2.65 in August and up from 2.60 percent in September 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.