April 29, 2003
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The number of homes sold in California has declined but a glut of buyers facing a tight housing market drove the median home price in March up to a record $290,000, an analyst said.
The new statewide median price represents a 2.8 percent increase over $282,000 in February and a 12.4 percent hike over the $258,000 median price the same period a year ago, according to DataQuick Information Systems.
In the San Francisco Bay area, the median price was $419,000 in March, up 10 percent from March 2002. In Southern California, the median price was $301,000, a 17.1 percent increase over the previous year.
In Northern California, the highest median price paid for a home was $590,000 in Marin, a 9.7 percent increase over the previous year. Napa saw the area's biggest percentage increase in median home price: $403,000, a 24.8 percent jump.
In Southern California, Orange County had the highest paid median price, $394,000, an 18.7 percent increase. San Diego had the area's highest percentage jump -- 19.4 percent -- for a median price of $363,000.
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