Index: Luxe Home Values Jump in LA, San Diego

Luxury home values were up dramatically in the first quarter from those of a year earlier in Los Angeles and San Diego, according to the Prestige Home Index released by First Republic Bank, San Francisco.The index indicates that values had jumped 17.9% in Los Angeles, to $1.66 million, eclipsing the previous record set in 1990. In San Diego, luxury home values were up 15.1% compared with those of the first quarter of 2003, First Republic reported. They rose to $1.64 million, the fourth consecutive quarterly record. Meanwhile, luxury home values rose 8.3% in the San Francisco Bay area compared with those of a year earlier, as average values reached $2.37 million, just short of the $2.39 million record high set in the second quarter of 2001. "Luxury home values in California rose sharply in the first quarter of 2004 due to strong demand, limited inventory, an improving economy, and concern that interest rates, which are still low by historic[al] standards, will continue to rise," said Katherine August-deWilde, First Republic's chief operating officer. First Republic produces the index quarterly with Case Shiller Weiss, a provider of automated property valuation services and home price metrics. The bank can be found online at http://www.firstrepublic.com.