Median San Joaquin Co. home prices above $250K

Median single-family home prices in San Joaquin County climbed above a quarter million dollars in April.
Figures out from the California Association of Realtors put the median price at $251,000, up more than 28 percent from a year earlier.
Home sales jumped nearly 19 percent in April compared to a month earlier, but were off nearly 21 percent compared to April 2013.
CAR also reported that there is roughly a three month supply of homes available for sale -- six to seven months is considered normal -- and the homes that are on the market are staying there a bit longer. In April, the average time on the market was just under 24 days compared to just over 20 days a year earlier. Statewide, homes remain on the market an average of about 34 days.
Part of that longer sales time can be attributed to lower affordability and relatively higher interest rates during the first quarter of 2014.
This week CAR reported that statewide affordability declined sharply in the first quarter compared to the first quarter of 2013.
Home buyers, CAR said, needed a minimum annual income of $86,419 to purchase of a $416,720 statewide median-priced, existing single-family home in the first quarter of 2014.  The monthly payment, including taxes and insurance on a 30-year fixed-rate loan, would be $2,160, assuming a 20 percent down payment and an effective composite interest rate of 4.46 percent.  The effective composite interest rate in fourth-quarter 2013 was 4.43 percent and 3.56 percent in the first quarter of 2013.
Affordability -- the percentage of all households that can afford to buy a median-priced single-family home -- is considered the most fundamental measure of housing well-being for home buyers. Affordability has dropped 23 percent since its peak in the first quarter of 2012.
In the first quarter of 2013, 44 percent of the state's households could afford the median-priced home. That dropped to 33 percent in first quarter of 2014.
As of Wednesday, CAR was only reporting affordability rates for 22 of the state's 58 counties (data for San Joaquin County has not been released). However, in Sacramento County about 50 percent of the county's households could afford a median-price home costing about $264,000, CAR said.