The new report on home price increase is out. Is it any surprise that the numbers are up again? Well, not to me. What is surprising is that the pace that we continue to be in. Here in the east bay cities of Castro Valley, Hayward, Dublin, San Ramon, Danville etc, the numbers are more staggering than the national average. Again not so surprising since the bay area real estate market as been historically high up there in the rankings.

 What is surprising to be is still the number of well qualified buyers out there. We have not run out of buyers that are either paying cash or have huge down payments to pay for these sky high prices. Unlike the last real estate runup we experienced back in the early 2000s, this one is backed by well qualified buyers!

Home values have risen dramatically over the last twelve months. The latest Existing Home Sales Report from the National Association of Realtors puts the annual increase in the median existing-home price at 7.1%. CoreLogic, in their most recent Home Price Insights Report,reveals that national home prices have increased by 6.9% year-over-year.
The CoreLogic report broke down appreciation even further into four different price categories:

1. Lower Priced Homes: priced at 75% or less of the median
2. Low-to-Middle Priced Homes: priced between 75-100% of the median
3. Middle-to-Moderate Priced Homes: priced between 100-125% of the median
4. High Price Homes: priced greater than 125% of the median

Here is how each category did in 2016:

Bottom Line

The lower priced homes (which are more in demand) appreciated at greater rates than the homes at the upper ends of the spectrum.