Sacramento County home prices kept pushing higher in July, CoreLogic reported Wednesday.
The median price of single-family resale homes in the county was $340,500 — the highest it's been since the spring of 2007, just before the region's housing market began its epic crash.
For perspective, the county's median home resale price rose to $374,000 at the peak of the housing bubble in August 2005 before plummeting to $155,000 in October 2011, according to CoreLogic. The current median is 9 percent less than the 2005 peak.
The median price is the point at which half of homes sell for more and half sell for less.
An extremely tight supply of homes for sale, exceeded by buyer demand, has forced prices higher during the spring-and-summer buying season this year. The July median for Sacramento County was nearly 10 percent higher than it was at the same time last year, when it stood at $310,000.
CoreLogic, a real estate tracking firm based in Irvine, also reported that new homes sale were on the rise in Sacramento County, with a 29 percent increase since July 2016. That's partly the result of a resumption of construction in North Natomas, after federal authorities lifted a de facto building moratorium they'd imposed because of flooding concerns.
However, the 221 new home sales in Sacramento County in July were still 41 percent short of the average for the month over the past two decades, CoreLogic reported. While construction is picking up, it isn't close to the levels typical of prior economic recovery cycles.
Some experts have suggested that as resale prices rise, new homes will become a more viable alternative for buyers. That could boost housing construction, which traditionally has been a major economic driver in the Sacramento region.
