California

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.

A $300 rent hike threw Noemi Hernandez' finances into a tizzy in 2016, forcing the part-time cashier to apply for food stamps and curtail spending on other things. A year later, her rent went up another $160.

Marin County's already inflated housing market climbed even more in 2017, with the median price of all homes at $980,000, an 8.9% jump from the 2016 median of $900,000.

Still shaken from last fall's wildfires, the Sonoma County, Calif., housing market saw its inventory drop in January to the lowest level for the month in more than a quarter-century.