State home prices heading back to pre-recession levels

Central Valley Business Times

STOCKTON

April 8, 2016

Last year California median home prices averaged $473,995, which is 85 percent of their 2006 peak value of $560,641, the California State Board of Equalization says.

“The increase in property values is welcome news for homeowners hit hard by the Great Recession,” says BOE Member George Runner. “But as California’s economy continues to recover, if we want to see more homeowners, we’re going to need more homes.”

San Francisco has the highest median price, well over a million dollars ($1,254,784) and 265 percent of the state median ($473,995). Six of the top 10 counties are in the San Francisco Bay Area. At the other end of the spectrum, median prices in 2015 were $164,085 in Siskiyou County, only 35 percent of the state median.

Every county in the Central Valley has a median price under the state average, the BOE says:

• San Joaquin -- $283,134 or 60 percent

• Stanislaus -- $246,707 or 52 percent

• Fresno -- $217,998 or 46 percent

• Madera -- $217,598 or 46 percent

• Kern -- $215,488 or 45 percent

• Merced – $196,906 or 42 percent

• Kings -- $187,988 or 40 percent

• Tulare -- $185,815 or 39 percent

http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=30320