Tacking another $16,000 on the median price of homes, California's fast-sales, low-inventory housing market is putting the frenzy back into home buying.

And revealing the underlying strength in the Silicon Valley market, a triple-digit sales increase jolted that market back into business.

Setting new records, existing single-family home sales in April soared 29.8 percent and the median price rose 26.1 percent -- to $321,950 -- compared to April 2001 numbers, according to the California Association of Realtors.

Condo prices jumped 20 percent during the same period, to a median $238,120, as sales zoomed ahead by 35.1 percent.

"With only a two-month supply of homes for sale throughout the state, there simply isn't enough inventory available to meet the demand for homes," said Robert Bailey, CAR president and broker-owner of the three-office Bailey Properties in Santa Cruz.

The desert Palm Springs area was the hottest price market with the greatest year-to-year price jump. The median price rose 27.2 percent in April to $238.290 for closed sales of single-family homes, CAR said.

The boost is attributed, it part, to the growing baby boomer market of vacation and resort home buyers.

"The two most important factors affecting real estate prices are the economy and demographics. The economy goes up and down, but demographics, particularly the baby-boomer generation, just keeps rolling along," said Rick Campbell, publisher of the Desert Real Estate Report.

Big price jumps were also posted in North Santa Barbara County, 21.7 percent; Los Angeles, 21.1 percent; Santa Barbara County, 18.9 percent and Ventura, 18.1 percent.

Silicon Valley was the sales leader in terms of increased sales, with sales zooming a whopping 118.8 percent from April 2001. What a difference a year makes. A year ago, sales tanked following the dot com crash and the technology bust. Meanwhile, this April, prices in Santa Clara County eclipsed the half million dollar mark again.

"Following nearly a year of declining values and shaky consumer confidence, Silicon Valley real estate sales are strongly rebounding. Activity continued throughout the first quarter and much of April, with multiple offers nearly the norm in some areas," Diane Bogart an associate broker with Coldwell Banker reported to RealtyTimes Market Conditions Report for Silicon Valley

"What drove all of this activity? A relatively low inventory coupled with the belief that the market finally hit bottom last Fall and began an upward trend in December, becoming more marked following the holidays. Similar to the year 2000, we saw more 'as is' sales, fewer contingencies and shorter escrow times," Bogart added.

Other big sales winners posting increases at or above 50 percent were also popular resort, seaside or travel destinations -- San Francisco Bay Area at 72.9 percent; San Luis Obispo, 65.9 percent; Santa Cruz County, 55.6 percent and Monterey County saw sales increase by 50 percent since April 2001, according to CAR.

In a separate, more local report, CAR joined the Real Estate Solutions' MetroScan service to reveal 261 of 304 California cities and communities with April-to-April increase in median home price.

The state's 10 cities and communities with the highest April median home price were: Carmel/Pebble Beach, $882,250; Pacific Palisades, $867,500; Malibu, $840,000; Palos Verdes Estates, $835,000; Burlingame, $790,000; Manhattan Beach, $744,000; Beverly Hills, $742,000; San Marino, $730,000; La Jolla, $727,500; Millbrae, $712,500.

Ten cities and communities with the greatest median home price increases during the April-to-April period were Culver City, 58.1 percent; South Pasadena, 51.9 percent; Los Alamitos, 43.6 percent; La Verne, 42.0 percent; Big Bear, 38.9 percent; Placerville, 36.6 percent; Twenty-nine Palms, 34.9 percent; West Hollywood, 34.2 percent; Paramount, 32.4 percent; Solana Beach, 31.5 percent.

It's going to be a long, hot summer for buyers.

"Low inventory, favorable mortgage interest rates and rapidly rising home price appreciation will continue to intensify the pace of home sales in the coming months," said CARs chief economist Leslie Appleton-Young.

Published: May 29, 2002

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.