24/7 Wall St. Insights
- A recent analysis reveals that the median home price in Silicon Valley is near $2 million.
- For some reason, home prices are surging in some Rust Belt cities as well.
- Also: Dividend legends to hold forever.
The National Association of Realtors has released its metropolitan area home price report for the third quarter of this year. Of the 226 markets covered, 90% posted year-over-year home price gains. The national increase was 3.1% to $418,700. The price increase at the very top of the markets barely slowed. The price of homes in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, in the heart of Silicon Valley, rose 2.7% to a median of $1.9 million.
The market with the next highest home prices was Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine, which is near Los Angeles. Prices there rose 7.2% to $1,398,500. Of the top 10 markets nationwide, based on median home prices in the third quarter, eight were in California. The other two were Honolulu in Hawaii and Boulder, Colorado.
It might not be expected that the cities where prices rose the most in the third quarter of 2024 from the third quarter of 2024 were primarily metros with poor populations, which are also cities in the old Rust Belt. This list was led by Racine, Wisconsin, where prices rose by 13.7%. The median home price in this metro was a low $310,800. Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio, followed it, up 13.1% to $171,000, then Syracuse, New York, up 13.0% to $262,200, and Peoria, Illinois, with a gain of 12.4% to $177,100.
The reason for high home prices in Los Angeles and the area around Silicon Valley is not surprising. What is a mystery is why home prices are surging compared to the national median in some of America’s poorest cities.
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