Alameda County Home Prices Keep Going Up

By Jim Welte and Genevieve Bookwalter

The number of homes sold year over year in June dropped in 8 of the 9 Bay Area counties, including Alameda. But the county’s median home price jumped 44 percent over June 2012.

The Alameda County median home price rose by $165,000 from the same period a year ago, according to a real estate information service.

Alameda recorded 1,656 homes sales in June, down 5.6 percent from 1,755 homes sold in June 2012, according to San Diego-based DataQuick. Marin was the only county in the nine-county Bay Area to see home sales rise in that period. Six Bay Area counties recording double-digit decreases in home sales. 

Marin’s median home price in June was $802,000, a nearly 15 percent spike from $700,000 in June 2012 but less than a 1 percent jump from a median price of $795,000 in May and $799,000 in April.

Each of the nine counties in the Bay Area saw double-digit median home price increases in June compared to June 2012, led by 44 percent spikes in Alameda and Napa counties.

The Bay Area as a whole recorded a median home price of $555,000 in June, up 33 percent from $417,000 in June 2012 and up 7 percent from $519,000 in May. The year-over-year median home price increase for the Bay Area was the fastest pace on record, DataQuick officials said.

For detached single-family homes, Marin's median home price in June was $940,000, up nearly 24 percent from $759,000 in June 2012 and up more than 4 percent from $900,000 in May. The median price for condos in Marin was $480,000, up nearly 32 percent from $365,000 and up more than 16 percent from $413,500 in May.

(Note: The chart above reflects median home price for all homes – both detached single-family homes and condos/townhouses – across the nine-county Bay Area.)

DataQuick officials attributed the marked rise in home prices to the disappearance of distress sales, an improving economy and mortgage rates that remain very low. The dip on total home sales across the Bay Area was due to a slow-growing supply of homes for sale continuing to fall short of demand and an easing of purchases by cash and investor buyers eased.

“It’s easier for a market to regain lost ground than to push into new territory,” DataQuick President John Walsh said in a statement. “We’re still bouncing off the bottom. This next part of the cycle should be fairly self-adjusting. As prices go up, more homes will come on the market. Price pressures will ease. The only element we don’t know much about right now is how much pent-up demand there really is out there.”

The Bay Area's median home price peaked at $665,000 in June and July 2007, then dropped as low as $290,000 in March 2009 – a decline of $375,000, or 56.4 percent, DataQuick reported. In May 2013, the median was still 22 percent below the peak but it had made up about 61 percent of its peak-to-trough loss.