Talking Points
- Since 2012, Bay Area home prices have increased an average of 72%, based on market research conducted by Paragon Real Estate Group. It cited dwindling affordability as a symptom of an overheating market.
- The median Bay Area home price hit a record $755,000 in May, the third consecutive monthly record, according to the data analytics firm CoreLogic. However, there was a slight decrease in home prices between April and May.
- Median home prices rose 3.1 percent in Alameda County between May 2016 and May 2017, but declined 1.1 percent between April and May of this year, according to CoreLogic. In Contra Costa County, home prices rose 6.5 percent between May 2016 and May 2017 but declined 0.7 percent between April and May of this year.
- It’s no secret that the Bay Area’s housing price boom and crisis in housing affordability is largely due to decades of job creation exceeding development of new housing, said Jordan Levine, senior economist at the California Association of Realtors, who sees regions centering on Austin, Denver, Portland and Seattle as becoming economically more competitive than the Bay Area.
- There may come a day when major tech employers seeking to attract talent will say enough is enough with housing costs in the Bay Area and decide to relocate elsewhere, potentially changing the economic dynamics of the region from growth to a downward cycle, said housing policy expert Carol Galante, faculty director of the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley.