File this under “We told you so.”
News headlines in recent days have trumpeted the latest Case-Shiller home price report as proof that the housing recovery has finally taken hold. “The Housing Bust Is Over,” the Business Insider website declared after Case-Shiller reported a 1.3 percent rise in April home prices. “After Years of False Hopes, Signs of a Turn in Housing,” according to The New York Times.
We welcome the news, of course, but we’ve been reporting on the robust recovery of the Bay Area real estate markets for more than two months now.
It bears repeating that the Bay Area economy is markedly different than the broad-brush U.S. averages that get the attention of the national media. Even California’s statewide averages fail to match the Bay Area’s job growth, powered by the twin engines of technology innovation and tourism.
Home sales have been climbing higher across the Bay Area since the early spring, with multiple bidding an all-too-common occurrence. Prices are rising, too, slowly bringing sellers into the market to relieve a marked shortage in inventory.
These are all signs that the Bay Area has moved far beyond the “bottom of the market” that the national media is celebrating. We’re well on the road back, and we expect that the second-quarter sales figures we will be reporting early next month will further widen the gap.
And yes: We told you so.