Perhaps it was inevitable — what goes up, up, up, must come down eventually. Homes in the Bay Area are now selling for less than they were a year ago, the only part of California where that is true, as rising interest rates continue to throw cold water on the region’s once-scorching pandemic real estate market.
In September, the median price of existing single-family houses in the nine-county region was down 2.6% compared to the same month in 2021, albeit a still-pricey $1.26 million, according to data from the California Association of Realtors. That was the third consecutive month of year-over-year declines.
Oscar Wei, deputy chief economist with the association, said the reasons why only the Bay Area is seeing a drop could be because more people are moving out of the region. Also, home prices have more room to fall here after spiking higher last year than anywhere else in the state.
