San Diego County ranked seventh nationally last month in home-price increase, ZipRealty reported Thursday.
Local prices rose 25 percent year-over-year to reach $429,900 in mid-August. The median stood at $430,000 in July and $345,000 in August 2012, with the median representing the halfway point among all resales.
The local market, which ranked third in July among 24 top cities, gave ground in August to Sacramento, whose median price rose 40 percent to $245,000 from mid-July 2012 levels. San Francisco and Los Angeles markets also rose faster, up 36 percent to $585,000 and 31 percent to $350,000, respectively.
In other local measurements:
Inventory dipped 8 percent to 6,349 listings year-over-year but rose from July’s 5,704.
Distressed sales dropped to 14 percent of the total, compared with 17 percent in July and 39 percent a year ago.
The days on the market prior to sale rose to 17, compared with 15 in July and 39 a year ago.
“Similar to the trend emerging in the rest of the country,” said ZipRealty CEO and President Lanny Baker, “new listings in San Diego have started to increase, indicating that there are more opportunities for home buyers to purchase homes, if they’re not dissuaded by rising mortgage payments.”
Freddie Mac’s primary mortgage market survey, also released Thursday, showed another uptick in 30-year, fixed-rate-loan rates, going from 4.50 percent a week ago to 4.57 percent for the current period, not counting origination fees. A year ago, the rate stood at 3.55 percent and it has been generally on the rise ever since.
Continued Baker, “Demand for homes in San Diego remains much stronger than in other metro areas around the country, as evidenced by median days-on-market.” The average nationally is 28 days, according to ZipRealty’s latest count.
ZipRealty bases its findings on multiple listing service figures, which generally exclude sales of newly built houses and condos. San Diego-based Dataquick, which does include all housing and bases its results on official records, is not expected to report August sales and prices until later this month. In July it set the San Diego area overall median price at $417,500, up 22.1 percent from July 2012.