Housing Prices Soar

[jeffrey]

If you think home prices in your area are high, be glad you're not house-hunting in Orange County, Calif. In the second quarter, the median price for an existing home in Orange County was $655,300, up nearly 39% from a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors. For the first time, median home prices in Orange County surpassed those in the San Francisco Bay Area, which had been the USA's highest-priced housing market since the late 1990s.

The median price for homes in the San Francisco Bay Area was $647,300, up 15.5% from a year earlier.

Nationally, the median home price was $183,800 in the second quarter, up 9.1% from a year earlier, according to the NAR. The association's survey of 128 metropolitan regions found a record 49 metro areas with double-digit annual increases. Tight housing supplies created a sellers' market in many parts of the country, the NAR said... [read more at usatoday.com]