California

Fierce competition for a limited number of homes pushed house prices higher in March, with Southern California homebuyers paying the highest median prices in more than a decade.

A sweeping bill that would have given the state unprecedented power over local development failed in its first committee hearing, crushing the hopes of those who saw it as the key to making housing in the state more affordable.

As the state's costliest housing markets and high rents threaten to force all but the highest-paid workers into ever-longer commutes, California lawmakers have introduced a bill to help more teachers, firefighters and other middle-income workers live close to their jobs.

New residents to the Bay Area are earning far more than the people they're chasing out, a new report says, pushing up home prices and highlighting the gap between owners and renters in Silicon Valley.

Louise Juracek, a broker associate at Coldwell Banker Preferred Realtors in Bakersfield, Calif., sells 130 to 150 houses a year.

The new federal budget approved this month boosted tax credits for corporations that help finance low-cost housing but the move is unlikely to help a long-stalled 63-unit affordable housing project with a $5 million funding gap.

The median price of a Marin home rose to $885,750 in February, an 8.7% increase over the $815,000 median a year earlier.

Heads of a large real estate investment company with offices in Alaska and California have agreed to pay $3 million in fines for what a federal agency says was a scheme to "bilk" hundreds of investors out of millions of dollars.

San Diego County home prices jumped 8.6% in February compared to a year ago, while sales remained tight as the region struggles with a shortage of homes for sale.

Southern California home prices continued galloping upward at double-digit rates in February amid a lopsided mismatch between the number of buyers and sellers.

The median sales price of existing single-family homes rose across the Sacramento region in February compared with the same month last year, while newly built homes accounted for a larger share of the region's residential real estate market.

One candidate in the San Francisco mayor's race wants to shake out the pockets of real estate developers. Another wants to sue speculators who he said are putting people out on the street. A third called for a rigorous analysis of the city's housing stock.

Home equity levels increased year-to-year in the fourth quarter of 2017 following a larger-than-expected surge in home prices during the past year.

More signs have that last year's market strength is kicking off a repeat in 2018 home prices.

Santa Cruz County is among the counties in the nation hardest hit by the tax law change approved in December to limit mortgage interest deductions to the $750,000 in home loans, down from $1 million.

Though early-stage mortgage delinquencies inched up in December 2017, the serious mortgage delinquency rate hit its lowest point for the month of December since 2006.

Bay Area residents already face some of the highest housing prices in the country.

Bay Area home prices rose in January, and sales dropped again — continuing trends in one the nation's least affordable housing markets.

Sacramento County's median price for resale homes rose by nearly 14% in January compared to the same month last year, though the number of sales slumped from December in a typical seasonal pattern.

Tony Hicks moved to San Jose in 1981, but he's had enough.