East Bay homes, like this house in Fremont, saw the biggest price gains during the past year in the Bay Area.

Blanca Torres
Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

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Home prices are shooting up across the nation with the Bay Area leading the pack — but which submarket has soared the most? Oakland.

Metropolitan Oakland — which includes much of the East Bay — saw home prices jump 31.2 percent from May 2012 to May 2013, towering above San Francisco with 19.6 percent growth and the San Jose metro area with 23.2 percent, according to Trulia, the San Francisco-based real estate information site. Nationwide, home prices grew by 9.5 percent during the past year.

Everyone keeps talking about how expensive homes are getting in San Francisco, but East Bay prices have more room to grow. Those growth figures over one year look pretty steep — and they are — but you have to keep in mind that prices dropped by greater percentages after the 2008 mortgage crisis.

“Inventory is really low,” said America Foy, an agent with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate who specializes in the East Bay.

A lack of inventory has led to bidding wars even in lower-cost areas or starter homes, Foy said, but more home owners are realizing that their homes are worth more and putting more homes on the market as demand shows no sign of slowing down.

“Some people have been saving up for the last four or five years, so they are ready to buy a house,” Foy said. “It’s smart to buy a house right now, that’s what people are feeling.”

Trulia looked at how much home asking prices had grown in 100 metropolitan markets in the United States and determined the 10 most expensive markets based on price-growth and percent of income going toward a mortgage.

You see the full list here. Here’s Trulia’s top ten:

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Blanca Torres covers East Bay real estate for the San Francisco Business Times.

Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2013/06/where-home-prices-grew-most-in-bay-area.html

The 2012 Home Listing Report compares the average home listing price of more than 72,000 four-bedroom, two-bathroom properties listed on coldwellbanker.com between January and June 2012.

Of the 48 markets surveyed in Virginia, Arlington topped the list. Here, the average price of a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home was $678,486. Northern Virginia certainly isn’t a stranger to high home prices. Vienna, Alexandria, Ashburn and Fairfax rounded out the top five in the Coldwell Banker report.

On the other end of the spectrum, Danville was ranked most affordable in Virginia. There, the average price of a comparable home was $153,957.

Nationally, the five most expensive markets were all in California — four in the San Francisco Bay area. Los Altos, Calif., is the most expensive market in the country, according to the report. The average listing there? $1,706,688.

Of 2,479 markets surveyed nationally, Arlington ranked 85th most expensive.

The most affordable market in the country is Redford, Mich., where a comparable piece of property goes for $60,490.

The average listing price of a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home in the United States is $292,152, according to the report.

Coastal states are home to the majority of the country’s most expensive markets, the report states.

Article source: http://arlington-va.patch.com/articles/report-arlington-real-estate-market-the-most-expensive-in-virginia