Home sales jump as prices continue record surge

A strong job market, optimism and a short supply of homes underlie a record stretch of high home prices in the Bay Area, according to the research firm CoreLogic.

The median price of homes in the Bay Area in June was $712,000, the third consecutive monthly record, according to the latest CoreLogic data released today. The June record is up 1 percent from May and 7.9 percent from June 2015 when the median price was $660,000.

“Prices in today’s market and during the last housing boom were fueled in part by job growth, consumer confidence and tight supply,” CoreLogic research analyst Andrew LePage said in a statement.

“While the current cycle has received a boost from historically low mortgage rates — about 3.6 percent recently compared with the 6-percent range in the last cycle — the last cycle benefited from loose underwriting and high-risk ‘subprime’ home loans that allowed borrowers to stretch to their financial max, if not well beyond,” LePage said.

A total of 8,679 homes were sold in the Bay Area last month, up 8 percent from 8,035 homes in May but down 6.5 percent from 9,282 in June of last year. The average gain between May and June is 4.1 percent, based on data collected by the firm since 1988.

Among the Bay Area’s nine counties, home prices rose in four and dropped in five.

The highest increase was 4.4 percent in San Mateo County, followed by 2.9 percent in San Francisco.

The median price in San Francisco is $1,170,000 and in San Mateo County is $1,070,000, the highest prices in the Bay Area.

The lowest prices are in Solano, Sonoma, Napa and Contra Costa counties, according to the firm.

In Solano County, the median home price was $375,000, which is the lowest in the region.