It’s interesting to look at real estate graphically…

I’ve heard from numerous agents that the local single-family residential market has been strongest at the top where cash buyers rule. The lower end of the market is more interest rate sensitive. After a prolonged period of rising home prices after the throes of the pandemic, the market may have peaked. The San Mateo County median single-family home price of $1,800,000 in July 2022 is a drop of 12.1% from the prior month. It fell by 20.0%, however, from the high of $2,250,000 reached in April. The market tends to pick up for a time after the summer then it usually slows down at year-end. The back half of this year will be very interesting. Maybe a return to more “normal” prices?

You probably expect there to be a strong correlation between market rents and median household income… there is. In the nine San Francisco Bay Area Counties there is a 0.963 correlation between median household income and median rent with 1.0 being a perfect correlation.