House prices are continuing to climb. The national median list price reached $275,000 last month, which was 10 percent higher than the same time one year ago.
Realtor.com ranked the nation’s hottest housing markets in May. Vallejo, Calif., and the San Francisco Bay Area remained numbers one and two from April, while Boston rose three spots to No. 3. Sacramento fell one spot to No. 4, and Kennewick, Wash., a market near the Oregon border, rose 12 places to No. 5.
Midland, Texas, had the largest jump, going from No. 32 in April to No. 8 in May. Santa Rosa in California, meanwhile, fell 15 spots from No. 4 to No. 19.
In fact, inventory levels right now are a bit like one of those good news/bad news jokes. The good news: The inventory of homes for sale increased slightly from April to May, with 560,000 new listings. The bad news: That was still a drop of 11% from May of last year—not nearly enough to keep up with snowballing demand.
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