Bay Area-adjacent notches big price gains in pandemic housing market

Housing prices have soared in hinterlands of California as well as metro centers during the pandemic, with markets exploding in outlying areas where urban dwellers bought cheaper and bigger spreads to work from home.

A study of Zillow home value listings between January 2020 and January 2022 found big spikes in prices in San Joaquin County, parts of the Bay Area and South Lake Tahoe, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

San Joaquin County was near the top of the highest home value growth list. The planned community of Mountain House outside Tracy saw a 58 percent leap in home value growth, from $656,011 to $1,036,579, while Thornton jumped 54 percent to $621,000.

Andrew Jacobsen, a real estate broker in Mountain House, said interest was driven by its proximity to the Bay Area and good schools.

“There are bigger houses, newer houses for considerably less,” Jacobsen said. “People are moving here mostly from Fremont, San Jose and Cupertino.”

In the Bay Area, Sea Ranch in coastal Sonoma County had a 58 percent increase to $1,553,000, while values on Bethel Island in Contra Costa County jumped 52 percent to $677,000 in two years. With Bay Area prices already high, they represented the only ZIP codes in the top 100.

In South Lake Tahoe, the market shot ahead in June 2020 and has been nonstop since. Many buyers are second homeowners from the Bay Area, El Dorado Hills and Sacramento who can drive there and work remotely. During the pandemic, a typical home jumped 58 percent to $716,000.

Many locals are getting pushed out of the market as home prices soar.

“For one property to have 29 offers on it is a common thing in the Bay Area, but for our area it’s not,” said Brooke Hernandez, a Compass realtor in South Lake Tahoe. “That is driving prices upward. Lack of inventory is another thing.”

The Mojave desert north of Palm Springs overwhelmingly numbered in the top 10 out of 100 ZIP codes with populations of 500 or more residents. Perks included more square footage, bigger lots and outdoor attractions

Landers, a small town with the Integratron dome built by ufologist George Van Tassel, took the top spot: Typical home values there soared 84 percent, from $160,133 to $294,850. Nearby Joshua Tree–a popular place for second homes for Angelenos–sawe values grow 69 percent during the pandemic, from $244,942 to $414,172. In third place was Twentynine Palms,where home values rose 63 percent from $152,148 to $248,453.

[San Francisco Chronicle] – Dana Bartholomew

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