The Golden State is about to become the State Of The Half-Million Dollar Home.

California's median price of single-family detached resale homes inched closer to $500,000 in March as prices rose 15.7 percent in the past year. Sales were up 7.5 percent, according to the California Association of Realtors (CAR).

That put the median price at $495,400, up 5.2 percent from February -- a greater increase than some areas enjoy in a year, but the state's smallest annual price gain in two years, indicating some wear on the booming market. The median price for condos wasn't far behind at $397,980, after rising even more during the past year, 18.7 percent.

"The median price of a home was just shy of a half-million dollars in March, although the annual rate of increase was the smallest we've seen since June 2003," said Jim Hamilton, CAR president.

"The inventory of homes for sale has increased compared to a year ago, which has lessened the upward pressure on home prices, but consumers' perceptions that interest rates will increase continues to drive the market."

The year-to-year price increases ranged from 10.2 percent in Orange County to a whopping 37.5 percent jump in the arid High Desert region which remains the state's most affordable with a $264,320 median price.

The most expensive regions include Santa Barbara's posh South Coast, with a median of $1.15 million and the San Francisco Bay Area cluster -- Santa Clara County (Silicon Valley) $733,000; Santa Cruz County, $725,000; San Francisco, $704,060.

In addition to the High Desert region, the low end included the Central Valley with a median price of $324,640; Riverside/San Bernardino at $347,200 and Sacramento at $357,360.

Revealing market pressures on high-cost regions, month-to-month prices actually dropped in Santa Barbara County by 6.7 percent; Monterey County, 3.6 percent; Los Angeles, 1.5 percent and Santa Cruz County, by 0.7 percent.

Also, homes took a little longer to sell. The median number of days it took to sell a single-family home was 31 days in March 2005, compared with 25 days for the same period a year ago.

Still, sales are golden.

Year-to-year sales of single family homes fell by double digits in Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz counties and were down by 5.9 percent in San Diego and 4.6 percent in San Francisco but rose in virtually every other region.

Month-to-month condo sales rose by more than 60 percent.

"Year-to-date sales are 6 percent ahead of last year's pace, reflecting the continued strength of the real estate market and the improving economic fundamentals of the California economy," said Leslie Appleton-Young, CAR's chief economist.

In a separate report covering more localized statistics generated by CAR and La Jolla, CA-based DataQuick Information Systems, 97.5 percent or 396 of 406 cities and communities showed an increase in median home prices from a year ago.

"Demographic growth in the state's population also is fueling much of this activity -- California has absorbed three million new residents since 2000," she added.

Published: April 27, 2005

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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.