California is home to a half-dozen of the nation’s most valuable housing markets.
The total value of US housing rose more than $2.6 trillion in the past year to just under $52 trillion – up $1.1 trillion from housing’s previous value peak of June 2022, Zillow said in a new report.
Those gains defy predictions that higher borrowing costs would lead to a prolonged slump. Low levels of supply, enhanced by the lock-in effect — which has left current mortgage borrowers reluctant to give up their low-cost loans — have pushed nationwide prices to a new high. The rise in the sum of Zillow’s estimated value for every US home was tied to a 0.7% rise in the average price plus a surge in new construction.
At the top of the metro area rankings were six California markets …
- Los Angeles-Orange County: No. 2 in the US at $3.7 trillion, up $3 billion or 0.1% since the June 2022 housing peak.
- San Francisco: No. 3 at $1.8 trillion, down $176 billion or 9% since June 2022.
- San Diego: No. 9 at $994 billion, up $10 billion or 1% since June 2022.
- San Jose: No. 11 at $909 billion, down $50 billion or 5% since June 2022.
- Riverside: No. 14 at $785 billion, down $25 billion or 3% since June 2022.
- Sacramento: No. 19 at $482 billion, up down $27 billion or 5 % since June 2022.
The real estate boom in Florida means that Miami has surged up the rankings to become the fifth-largest metropolitan housing market — climbing from the ninth spot in May 2021, and overtaking the nation’s capital Washington DC among others.
Miami home values are up more than 80% since the start of the pandemic, and so are properties in Tampa and Jacksonville. Orlando has seen an increase of more than 70%. Substantial population growth in the state is one reason why Florida prices have climbed so fast, according to Zillow.
The state of Florida has overtaken New York to become the second most-valuable US housing market, according to Zillow.
The gains haven’t been evenly spread across the country. In California, which contains about one-fifth of the US housing market, prices have declined since June 2022. But in Florida, the value of residential property has risen $159 billion in that period — pushing the Sunshine State ahead of New York in the national rankings.
“Despite the presence of higher mortgage rates, which deterred some home shoppers and kept many existing homeowners on the sidelines, enough buyers remained to keep the market moving,” wrote Orphe Divounguy, a senior economist at Zillow.
The top five states …
- California: $10 trillion, off $344 billion or 3% since the June 2022 housing peak.
- Florida: $3.8 trillion, up $159 billion or 4% since June 2022.
- New York: $3.7 trillion, off $9 million or 0.2% since June 2022.
- Texas: $3.4 trillion, up $50 million or 1.5% since June 2022.
- New Jersey: $1.8 trillion, up $213 million or 13% since June 2022.
Bloomberg News and Jonathan Lansner, business columnist for the Southern California News Group, contributed to this report.