Bay Area housing market continues on a roll

The San Francisco-area housing market strengthened in November as sales and prices both increased from a year earlier.

The region’s median home price of $438,000 was up 5.3% from October and 20.5% from November 2011, according to real estate firm DataQuick of San Diego. The median is the point at which half of the homes in the area sold for more and half for less.

DataQuick President John Walsh said the housing market in the nine-county Bay Area was “strained,” with demand outstripping the supply of houses and condominiums for sale. In the city of San Francisco itself, prices were up 13% year-over-year at a median of $728,000.

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“Current trends are likely to stay with us well into spring, at least,” Walsh said. “There are still mortgage finance issues. Some loan categories are not active. But right now, low mortgage interest rates make up for that. With the mismatch between supply and demand, there’s upward pressure on prices.”

Sales of homes in the Bay Area were down 6.4% from October, a normal seasonal decline, but up 15.5% from a year earlier to total 7,296, the highest number of sales for any November since 2006.

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