Median home price in South Bay exceeds $2M, marking the first ever for U.S. metro area

SAN JOSE, Calif. - The San Jose metropolitan area has received the dubious distinction of becoming the first U.S. market, where the median home price has exceeded $2 million, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

In addition to San Jose, the metropolitan area included the Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area, with the median coming in at $2,008,000.

"It's the first time since NAR began tracking metro area single-family home prices in 1979 that a metro area's median price exceeded $2 million," the realtor group said.

The record was marked as California metro areas were listed in seven of the 10 most expensive markets in the U.S.

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After the South Bay, the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward market had the next highest median for a single-family existing home price, with a median of more than $1.4 million.

"Conversely, some markets that experienced declines last year have roared back, such as San Francisco," NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a news release.

The Salinas market was also among the top metro areas. The median there was slightly above $1 million. 

Other California markets on the list of top 10 most expensive were: Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine at $1.4M, San Diego-Carlsbad, at above $1M, Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura at almost $928K, and San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles with a median of about $895K.

"The record-high home prices in most metro markets bring good and bad news," said Yun. "It's terrific news for homeowners who are moving ahead in wealth gains. However, it's difficult for those wanting to buy a home as the required income to qualify has roughly doubled from just a few years ago."