The National Association of Realtors says that although rising sales & home prices typically coincide that wasn’t the case in the 4th quarter of 2015.
Despite slightly cooling demand from earlier in the year that caused sales to decline (5.4 percent) from the third quarter, single-family home prices picked up speed and showed continued strength in nearly all metro areas (81 percent) to close out the year. Why? Depressed supply levels in relation to the overall pool of prospective buyers continues to lift upward pressure on home prices in several metro areas. The end result is that even in some of the top job producing, but costliest parts of the country (I’m talking to you West Coast and parts of the South), homeownership remains out of reach for many qualified buyers.
The five most expensive housing markets in Q4 were (note 4/5 are in California):
- San Jose, $940,000
- San Francisco, $781,600
- Honolulu, $716,600
- Anaheim-Santa Ana $708,700
- San Diego, $546,800.
Below are the top 30 markets with the fastest price appreciation:
