California real estate is back! That is what the newest data from the National Association of Realtors is signaling for the third quarter of 2012. The Western regional sales were the biggest driver of the total 7.6% U.S. gain in the median home price of existing single-family homes located in major metropolitan areas. On a sequential basis, this same measurement was up 2.6% nationally from the second quarter of this year. Huge snap-backs in Arizona led regional gains of 20% in the West, but the major metro housing markets of California showed some very impressive gains annually and sequentially.

Many locak metro markets saw the traditional spring rush as home buyers want to get into a home before or during the summer ahead of what is back-to-school season. Unlike some other regions, California’s median prices rose in most areas even sequentially when other areas saw some price contraction after the spring-summer housing rush cooled off. It is important to note that these NAR figures are raw median prices and are not seasonally adjusted.

24/7 Wall St. tracked the median housing price gains in the major metro markets of Anaheim, Los Angeles, Riverside, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, and San Jose, as well as the surrounding areas.

Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine rose by 7.7% in the third quarter to $560,300 year over year and this was also up sequentially by 3.3% from $542,000 in the second quarter. The median sales price of existing apartment or condo sales was not tracked by NAR.

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana saw a gain of 9.5% year over year to $355,00 but the sequential jump was much greater as the pop was by more than 19% from $296,800 measured in the second quarter. The median sales price of existing apartment or condo sales rose 17.4% from a year ago to $262,000 per unit and that was even up 14.8% sequentialy from $228,200 in the second quarter.

Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario saw a 12.7% gain to $193,900 from the third quarter of 2011 and the sequential gain was up almost 6% from the $183,000 median price in the second quarter. The median sales price of existing apartment or condo sales was not tallied up.

Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville saw a gain of 8.8% year over year to $181,300 for its median price, but the sequential gain was 6% from $171,000 in the second quarter. The median sales price of existing apartment or condo sales was up only by 3.9% to $83,200 per unit.

San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos saw a gain of “only 4.5%” year over year to $386,300 but this was actually up by 3.8% from the median price of $372,000 in the second quarter. The median sales price of existing apartment or condo sales rose by 12.2% to $229,100 and that was also up by 5.4% sequentially from the $217,300 in the second quarter.

San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont saw a large gain of 15.5% from a year ago to $568,000. San Francisco saw a sequential gain of 2.8% from the $552,600 seen in the median price during the second quarter. The median sales price of existing apartment or condo sales saw a sharp 14.6% rise from a year ago to $418,800 and that figure was up 10.5% sequentially from $379,100 in the second quarter.

San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara saw a gain of 14.6% over a year earlier as the third quarter median price came in at $673,000 for single-family homes. That is technology buyers driving those gains. On a sequential basis, the median price rose by 2.7% from $655,200 in the second quarter. The median sales price of existing apartment or condo sales was not tabulated by NAR.

Read Also: The Most Expensive Neighborhoods in America

If you look at the CoreLogic data which recently showed a 5% jump as the largest year over year gain, they showed that prices in September fell by 0.3% nationwide in September versus August. That was also not seasonally adjusted and is in line with spring and summer buying surges rather than a sudden slowing of the housing market.

We also have the exact same regional report for the major metro markets State of Texas, and there is a huge difference in the affordability of housing there.

JON C. OGG (Twitter: @jonogg)

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