Home prices have been hitting new highs all year, but California’s median prices are nearly $400,000 more than the country’s average. The median home price in September for California hit a whopping $712,430, according to the New York Times. Just in June, the median home price hit $626,200, and it has been growing ever since. This new median is the highest on record. For reference, the median home price of an existing home nationally hit $313,000 in October. One appraiser says builders have not been able to construct new homes fast enough to satisfy the state’s population of 39 million.
Those builders also haven’t been able to — or haven’t chosen to — build the kind of properties that the majority of the population needs.
“New home construction skews luxury. We aren’t building enough affordable new homes,” said Jonathan Miller, of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel. “Most of the sales growth in single family homes in California is above the $600,000 mark. When it comes to inventory, there is more lost in affordable and modest-priced housing, year over year, than in the upper-level housing market.”
Advertisement
Related Stories
Housing Markets
Metros Where Housing Prices Have Doubled in Less Than 10 Years
Historical data show it's taken less than 10 years for home prices to double in 68 of the country’s 100 largest cities
Affordability
The Disappearing Act That Is Middle-Income Housing
An expert weighs in on the diminishing supply of middle-income housing, which is particularly acute in California, and what to do about it
Market Data + Trends
A Look at Homeownership Rates Across the Nation
Data for homeownership rates in the 100 largest US cities show Port St. Lucie, Fla., in the top spot, while West Virginia is the state with the most homeowners