Median Riverside County home price tops $600K
The Inland Empire, once the most affordable place to own a home in Southern California, has officially joined the rest of the state with home prices topping $600,000.
The median price of an existing, single-family home in Riverside County was $605,030 in February, up from $590,000 in January and $519,000 a year ago, the California Association of Realtors said on Tuesday. Statewide, the average median home price is up to $771,270, up from $765,610 in January, and $699,000 in January of 2021.
In another metric, the number of homes in California worth a million dollars or more has nearly doubled since the start of the pandemic. According to online real estate listing company Redfin, the majority of two California cities are at the million-dollar mark or more – in San Francisco, 89% of its homes, and 86% of San Jose's properties. Redfin says the biggest jump in the number of million-dollar properties was in Anaheim, where 55% of homes are now worth a million dollars or more, up from 27% just two years ago.
"Despite higher mortgage rates, California's housing market is holding up remarkably strong, with home prices re-accelerating, market competition growing and signs that the listings crunch is thawing," CAR President Otto Catrina said in a statement. "Prospective buyers are taking advantage of still-low rates before they move higher and getting a jump on competition before the start of the spring home-buying season."
Is there any place in California that's still relatively affordable? The cheapest houses in the state are in Northern California's Lassen County, where median prices are at $239,000.
