Ever since WW II as the chart shows, homes here in California have sold for more than the national average. And it’s getting better / worse, depending on who you are.The three priciest markets nationwide are here: San Jose (median price of $1,000,000), then San Francisco, and Anaheim-Santa Ana.
Yet home ownership here in California is down to a 50-year low (again compared to the US as a whole) and rents here are averaging 50% more than the rest of the nation. A one bedroom apartment in San Francisco now rents for almost $3,500 per month.
People are selling. And leaving for cheaper pastures. This year 61,000 more people LEFT California than arrived.
Much of California is used for farming and the desert and mountain areas can’t support large numbers of people. So most of the population is jammed into relatively small metro places like the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles where demand outstrips supply by magnitudes. It’s the supply and demand curve that we all learned in school ___ there aren’t enough homes for sale, either newly built or existing pre-owned.
We are lucky here in Siskiyou County in housing at least, prices are affordable because demand has not forced them upward so much. It’s a too-long commute to where the good-paying jobs are, perhaps!