Bay Area median home price tops half-million-dollar mark — again

The median home price in the San Francisco Bay Area moved above the half-million-dollar threshold last month — a sign of just how hot that market is getting.

The median price for a home in the nine-county area was $510,000 in April, up 17% from March and a 30.8% jump from April 2012, according to real estate firm DataQuick.

“There’s somewhat of a perfect storm here, statistically speaking,” DataQuick president John Walsh said in a news release. “The pent-up demand, the economy, interest rates, investor buying.”

The median first climbed above $500,000 in May 2004 and kept on rising as the housing bubble inflated. After the market crashed, the median fell below $500,000 in June 2008.

The number of homes sold in the Bay Area increased 5.2% in April from March but were down 0.6% from April 2012. A total of 7,621 newly built and previously owned homes and condominiums sold in the region last month.

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