We all know that California is an expensive state to live in, and you might be surprised where the state’s priciest homes are located.
According to the technology-driven real estate company Compass, California is the third most expensive state, behind Hawaii and Massachusetts, and just ahead of New York and Alaska.
In fact, new data from the California Association of Realtors shows that owning a home in the state is an expensive proposition in all but the most rural counties.
In April, California’s real estate market was a story of extremes, KTLA/Channel 5 reported.
The station reported that the statewide median price for an existing single-family detached home rose 2.9% month over month to $914,810, and was nearly unchanged from a year ago.
Resort Communities
Mono County, home to resort communities such as Mammoth Lakes, stole the spotlight as having the priciest homes in the state, the data showed.
Mono County is located in eastern central California, between the crest of the Sierra Nevada mountains and the California-Nevada state border. The county runs along the U.S. Highway 395 corridor and serves as the eastern gateway to Yosemite National Park.
According to KTLA, Mono County saw a 142.9% year-over-year surge in median home prices, jumping from $1.05 million last April to $2.55 million. You may attribute the steep rise in prices to the small number of sales that move the needle.
Mono County’s 68.9% month-over-month price jump came as its sales volume fell 50%, indicating that a few luxury closings drove the median higher, KTLA noted.
That spike made the mountain region the most expensive market in the state, passing traditional San Francisco Bay Area heavyweights, including San Mateo County at $2.3 million and San Francisco at $2,127,500.
Affordable Housing
Where are the most affordable housing markets? That would be in the sparsely populated Far North region, KTLA noted.
Lassen County had the state’s lowest median price at $285,000, despite a 32% month-over-month increase.
Siskiyou County posted a 152.9% jump in year-over-year sales volume, the highest transactional growth in the state, while Lassen County, by contrast, saw sales volume drop 76.2% compared with last year.
Meanwhile, in Southern California, desirable and expensive coastal areas held firm, while inland desert regions showed corrections, KTLA reported.
The station noted that Orange County remained the most expensive major market in the southern region, with a median price of $1.47 million. San Diego County recorded the area’s highest year-over-year price growth at 5.8%, pushing its median price to $1,074,000.
KTLA said that a spring buying surge struck Los Angeles County, which saw a 15% month-over-month increase in sales volume. However, median prices were almost flat year over year at $845,410, KTLA reported.
The Inland Empire slowed, meanwhile.
San Bernardino County saw prices drop back below the half-million mark to $495,000, while posting Southern California’s steepest sales decline, down 7% from a year earlier, KTLA noted. Imperial County remained the most affordable market in the region at $415,000.
