News — Headlines

Home Prices Rise in More Than 90 Percent of California Counties in October

The median sales price rose year over year in October in 47 of 51 California counties for which data is available. For the second straight month, home prices rose by double-digit percentage points on an annual basis in the nine-county Bay Area — up 11.1 percent to $892,790. San Francisco again overtook San Mateo County as the state’s most expensive housing market, with a median...

Video: Highlights From Pacific Union’s Bay Area Real Estate and Economic Forecast to 2020

Check out this short clip of highlights from Pacific Union’s Bay Area Real Estate and Economic Forecast to 2020. To watch the full, one-hour presentation, click here. And to watch our first-ever Los Angeles Forecast to 2020, view the live stream on Wednesday, Nov. 29 at 5 p.m. Pacific Time.

Happy Thanksgiving 2017 From Pacific Union

All of us at Pacific Union would like to wish you a very happy, healthy, and relaxing Thanksgiving. Whether you’ve traveled or simply stayed put in the Bay Area, we hope you get to spend some quality time with family and friends. The year 2017 has given us plenty to be thankful for, and we hope you can say the same. Have a wonderful weekend,...

California Housing Affordability Falls to Decade Low in Third Quarter

Twenty-eight percent of California households earned the minimum annual income needed to purchase the median-priced $555,860 single-family home in the third quarter. Affordability improved by 1 percent to 2 percent from the second quarter in six Bay Area counties. San Francisco remains the state’s least-affordable county, with 13 percent of households able to afford the median-priced home. Inventory shortages continue to drive up Golden State...

California Continues to Boost Employment in October

As highlighted at Pacific Union’s Real Estate and Economic Forecast to 2020 last week, job creation has been a primary driver of Bay Area housing market trends. In October, the Golden State’s solid jobs gain continued with 31,700 jobs added according to the latest numbers from the California Economic Development Department, following a strong addition of 50,300 jobs in September. California’s unemployment rate further declined...

Real Estate Roundup: More Than Half of Bay Area Homeowners Are Now Equity-Rich

Here’s a look at recent news of interest to homebuyers, home sellers, and the home-curious. SAN JOSE, SAN FRANCISCO CONTINUE TO LEAD THE NATION FOR MOST EQUITY-RICH HOMEOWNERS Nationwide, home price appreciation pushed up the number of equity-rich owners in the third quarter, with San Jose and San Francisco once again leading the U.S. in that respect. That’s according to ATTOM Data Solutions’ latest U.S....

Pacific Union’s Mark McLaughlin Named One of the Bay Area’s Most-Admired CEOs

Pacific Union is honored and humbled to announce that CEO Mark A. McLaughlin has been named one of the most-admired company leaders in the Bay Area, the result of an exceptional focus on recruiting and retaining the region’s best and brightest real estate professionals and corporate staff. The San Francisco Business Times has named McLaughlin one of the region’s most-admired CEOs based on his extraordinary...

Key Takeaways From Pacific Union’s Real Estate and Economic Forecast to 2020

Yesterday, Pacific Union held its fourth annual Real Estate and Economic Forecast in partnership with John Burns Real Estate Consulting to project Bay Area activity through 2020. Below are some key, high-level takeaways from the live event. Most U.S. housing markets remain at low-to-normal risk levels, both in the short term and the medium term. Mortgage rates are projected to grow by about 80 basis...

Home Prices Return to Prerecession Levels in Two-Thirds of U.S. Metro Areas

Thirty-one of the 50 largest U.S. housing markets saw prices climb back to prerecession levels last year. Between 2006 and 2016, the median sales price rose by 31.5 percent in the San Jose metro area and 9.6 percent in San Francisco. Lending standards are tighter than they have been in almost 20 years, and Americans have significantly better credit scores than they did a decade...

Are We in the Midst of a Housing Bubble? Freddie Mac Offers Some Reassuring Words.

Memories of the mid-2000s housing-market bubble — and the collapse that followed — have Bay Area homebuyers, investors, and real estate professionals wondering whether the current run-up in prices is evidence of another dangerous bubble in the making. But new research from Freddie Mac says those fears are overblown. In fact, in one major indicator of a housing bubble — measuring the median house price...