“Three Bay Area counties set new jaw-dropping records as home prices continues to climb to vertigo-inducing heights (Mercury News).”

February marked a new high in median resale prices for single-family homes in Santa Clara, San Mateo, and San Francisco counties. These areas remain among the most expensive in the U.S.

CoreLogic, housing data company, provides information that show no signs of slowing prices down in this fast paced growth. Continued low inventory is contributing to the non-stop rise in housing prices since 2012.

Currently, I am experiencing 10-14 or more multiple offers on most homes. This trend contributes to high downpayment and cash buyers winning these homes -sending buyers with 3-10% down payments to more affordable areas. Buyers with high paying jobs and large stock options are controlling the market.

Last month for all homes (new and resale) rose 5.6% from January and 12.5% from February 2017 for Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Solano and Sonoma counties. Home sales were up 9.5% in February from the same time last year, making it the first time in four months sales have increased in volume. Although inventory is still below the 19% 30 year average.

All-in-all, inventory remains low driving prices higher.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/03/22/bay-area-home-prices-keep-going-up-one-county-sets-a-new-record/

California is now home to the largest share of Millennials, and they are active homebuyers. A recent report by The Brookings Institution took a deep look at the millennial generation (defined as those ages 25 to 34). Millennials are important because they are currently the largest generation since baby boomers. Millennials make up about 25 percent of the U.S. population, 30 percent of the voting population, and 40 percent of the working-age population, and they are increasingly more active homebuyers.

In addition, millennials are more racially and ethnically diverse than previous generations, as well as more educated. 

With almost 10 million millennials living in California, the state is home to the largest share of that generation — 13 percent of the population — which other than Texas at 9 percent is double the share of millennials in any other state. In Washington D.C., millennials account for 34.8 percent of the population.

In the figure below I have posted the Millennial population size by California metro areas.

Underneath you will see race/ethnic composition of millennials by California metro areas.