The median price of single-family housing in metro areas across the country continues to be on the upswing, making the American dream even more unattainable for many homeowners, a report says.
The National Association of Realtors said median home prices for single-family homes rose 91% in metro markets in the second quarter from a year earlier, up from 86% in the first quarter of 2019. The national median existing single-family home price in the second quarter was $279,600, up 4.3% from $268,000, in the second quarter of 2018.
The rise in home prices was attributed to low inventory and construction, which the report said fell in the first half of the year.
Despite the rise in metro area housing prices, three of the five most expensive housing markets in the second quarter saw a decline in single-family median home prices compared to a year ago: San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif., off by 5.3%; San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, down by 1.9%; and urban HonoluluI, down by 1.2%.
Still, the sticker shock remains in those areas. One high-profile Bay Area homeowner said he has had enough. In a tweetstorm last week, Adam Singer, former Google marketing manager, said after living in the Bay Area for over a decade, he’s had enough of the high cost of housing in the city and the city's failure to improve living conditions. He said he bought a place in Austin, Texas. “For same price of your SF rental you can afford basically as much house as you want here. Crazy,” he tweeted.
According to the National Association of Realtors, the median price tag for a single-family home in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area is $1.33 million. For the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward area, the cost is $1.05 million. And in urban Honolulu, the median price is $785,000.
The remaining two most expensive areas are Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine, Calif., which saw a slight increase in prices, with a median price of $835,000; and San Diego-Carlsbad, whre prices grew 1.8%, with a median single-family home price of $655,000.
The list for the five lowest-cost metro areas in the second quarter were Decatur, Ill., at $97,500; Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio, at $107,400; Cumberland, Md., at $117,800; Binghamton, N.Y., at $119,300; and Elmira, N.Y., at $119,400.
Financial advisors in the Bay Area pointed out that the San Jose region lies in the heart of Silicon Valley, where people who are looking to purchase homes are most likely earning high enough incomes to comfortably afford the high home prices.
Tom Lo of Vested Financial Planning in San Carlos, Calif., said he has been in the Bay Area for more than 30 years, and “the unfortunate thing about living in the Bay Area is that prices are very high and there is limited space. But people have good jobs and people want to live here."