Strength 4 / 5
$979K
San Diego median sale price fell back under $1M — now $979K
Dropping back below $1M re-opens a buyer pool that had been priced out — and puts sellers on notice that the last few months' comps are no longer defensible.
Markets › California
California housing market
In the Golden State, part of the Census Bureau's Pacific division, Pecan Street tracks 13 markets. Median sale prices run from $389K in Bakersfield to $1.5M in San Jose as of Sep 2026. 11 of 13 are higher than a year earlier and two are lower; San Francisco leads at +6.1% and San Jose trails at -3.3%.
Homes sit longest in Riverside / San Bernardino (64 median days on market) and sell fastest in San Jose (35 days). The share of active listings with a price cut runs from 28% in San Francisco to 42% in Stockton. Price-to-rent ratios run from about 14 in Bakersfield to 29 in San Jose, measured as years of HUD Fair Market Rent per median sale price. Among the 195 U.S. metros Pecan Street tracks, the San Jose metro has the 3rd-fewest median days on market and the Fresno metro the 7th-slowest year-over-year price growth. California's unemployment rate was 5.1% in Aug 2026 (BLS via FRED). The national rate was 4.2% in Sep 2026.
Markets at a glance
| Market | Median sale price | YoY | Days on market | Price-cut share | Price-to-rent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bakersfield | $389K | +1.0% | 58 | 31% | ≈ 14 |
| Fresno | $424K | -2.3% | 58 | 35% | ≈ 15 |
| Los Angeles | $1.0M | +1.2% | 55 | 30% | ≈ 22 |
| Modesto | $482K | +1.3% | 46 | 37% | ≈ 17 |
| Oxnard / Thousand Oaks | $873K | +1.4% | 56 | 38% | ≈ 22 |
| Riverside / San Bernardino | $583K | +0.2% | 64 | 30% | ≈ 18 |
| Sacramento | $594K | +1.2% | 51 | 41% | ≈ 17 |
| San Diego | $938K | +3.2% | 46 | 36% | ≈ 21 |
| San Francisco | $1.2M | +6.1% | 37 | 28% | ≈ 21 |
| San Jose | $1.5M | -3.3% | 35 | 31% | ≈ 29 |
| Santa Rosa | $794K | +1.1% | 55 | 33% | ≈ 17 |
| Stockton | $541K | +0.9% | 53 | 42% | ≈ 16 |
| Visalia | $392K | +3.6% | 60 | 36% | ≈ 16 |
Median sale price and year-over-year change from Redfin (rolling three months); median days on market and the share of active listings with a price cut from Realtor.com; price-to-rent is each market page's figure (its median sale price over a year of HUD Fair Market Rent). Figures are per metro market, not statewide.