From San Diego to San Francisco and from Sacramento to Fresno, California lived up to its name as the Golden State in 2004.

Even without a hot technology market to remove the state's jobs rut, California was just about out of record book ink before the year ended.

"Hot? That would be an understatement," broker owner Steve Rath reported to Realty Times' Market Conditions for Sacramento.

"With year-to-year median price increases of 25 to 30 percent over the last three years, 'hot' may not be strong enough of a word," said Rath with Better Homes Realty/North Valley Brokers in Fair Oaks, near the state's capital, Sacramento.

According to the California Association of Realtors (CAR), here's just how hot it's been in the Golden State in 2004.

• The median price of single-family detached homes in California should finish the year in excess of $450,000 -- 22 percent higher than the 2003 median of $372,700.

• That's the third consecutive year of double-digit percentage increases in the median price of single-family homes.

• A few days off the all-time record, four weeks is all it takes, on average, to sell a single-family home in California. Homes sell in days -- even hours -- in some Super Nova hot cities. The sales pace pushed the unsold inventory to a monthly low of 1.5 months in April as existing detached home sales are projected to increase 3 percent this year over last year's record sales figure of 601,800.

• Home builders can't keep up. New-home building eclipsed the 200,000 mark in 2004 for the first time in more than a decade, but that's only about half the number of new homes required to meet the insatiable demand.

  It all amounts to bad news for buyers.

• CAR's Housing Affordability Index fell to 19 percent in May, the first time the index has hit the teens since December 1989. The index is the percentage of households that can afford the state's median priced home. The affordability gap between California and the U.S. reached an all-time annual high of 36 percent in 2004. Affordability levels are as low as 12 and 13 percent in some regions and only low interest rates have kept levels from slipping even lower and more buyers from falling out of the market.

• First-time home buyers comprised only 26 percent of the market in 2004, an all-time low.

• Baby boomers, cashing in equity, preparing to retire-in-place and padding their investment portfolios took up the slack, buying so many homes they accounted for three out of four transactions in the state.

  "It's definitely a seller's market at the moment as inventory remains low and interest rates remain steady," said San Francisco real estate agent Julia Mason in her report to Realty Time's Market Conditions for San Francisco.

  "Most properties go quickly with multiple offers and usually end up significantly over the asking price. Something we've become accustomed to here in The City. But buyers shouldn't be afraid. There are things that can be done to increase your chance of being the 'chosen one'," said Mason who works with Pacific Union GMAC Real Estate.

• Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac increased the single-family conforming mortgage loan limit from $333,700 this year to $359,650 in 2005. The new conforming loan limit remains 28 percent lower than the median price of homes in California, but the increase will help more than 12,960 families become homeowners in California.

Not every corner of the state is glinting gold as Southern California begins to lose some of its shine.

"The median price for existing single-family homes in San Diego County reached $489,000 in October, up nearly $100,000 from a year ago and a 44 percent increase from October 2002, but San Diego has slowly shifted to a buyer's market," said Ginger Bass a RE/MAX broker associate.

"Houses that in April would have sold in six days are staying on the market for 90 days. Owners of higher-priced homes are being told to prepare to have their homes on the market for as long as six months," Bass reported to Realty Times' Market Conditions for San Diego.

The year 2005 is likely to shape up as one of cautious optimism that the rest of the state won't follow San Diego's lead -- well unless you are a buyer.

Published: December 30, 2004

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A journalist for 35-years, Broderick Perkins parlayed an old-school daily newspaper career into a digital news service offering editorial content and consulting services. Perkins' San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews Group includes the flagship news site, DeadlineNews.Com, offering real estate, personal finance and consumer journalism, and a backshop, the Deadline Newsroom.