Central Valley Homes Cost Half State’s Median

FRESNO —  Despite foggy winters and sizzling summers, living is easy in California’s Central Valley in one crucial way: A family can buy a decent home for about half the statewide median price.

Bloated by soaring prices in the more metropolitan San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles Basin, the median price of a home statewide hit $160,073 in May, according to the California Assn. of Realtors.

The median price from Sacramento to Bakersfield in the Central Valley was $85,737--a startling 86.7% lower than the statewide figures, reported Roger Cruzen, public relations officer for the state association.

For $85,000 and change, buyers can get the typical American Dream home in the valley, usually ranch style.

Most homes selling in that price range in the Bakersfield and Fresno markets include about 1,700 square feet, three bedrooms, a family room, fireplace, central air conditioning and heat, built-in stove and range and probably a dishwasher.

“You can get a really nice home; you can get new homes for that,” Barbara Don Carlos, public relations officer for the Bakersfield Board of Realtors, said in an interview.

The price often includes a built-in swimming pool, a luxury many valley residents consider nearly a necessity in coping with summer temperatures that regularly approach or top the century mark.

“Under a hundred thousand, there are a lot of houses available in Fresno with a pool,” said Don Grimm, first vice president of the Board of Realtors.

A key factor in keeping Fresno and Bakersfield housing prices from following the Bay Area and Los Angeles into the stratosphere is the availability of relatively inexpensive land to build new homes.

“We don’t have the natural barriers that San Francisco has,” Grimm noted. “There’s plenty of land available around here.”

That translates into cheaper prices for the land, Don Carlos said, adding that Bakersfield-area governments also attempt to keep regulatory costs down to encourage growth.

“We do not have as many growth-control policies,” she said. “Our county and city governments are very pro-growth.”

Another factor in keeping prices down is the lack of pressure from metropolitan area commuters--at least yet.

“We’re too far away from Los Angeles or San Francisco for someone to commute to work,” Grimm said. Fresno is about 200 miles from each metropolitan center.

Bakersfield is little more than 100 miles over the Tehachapis from teeming Los Angeles, but most daily commuters still find that a bit far, Don Carlos said.

“It’s an hour to an hour and a half just to get there,” she explained.

Rapid growth spurred by commuters is being experienced in such northern San Joaquin Valley communities as Tracy, Manteca, Stockton, Patterson and Modesto, because people can drive to the Bay Area in less than an hour.

The average selling price in Modesto during the second quarter was $94,000, a little higher than the median reported for the valley as a whole.

“We’ve got a very good, sound market here,” said Beryl Anderson of the Modesto Board of Realtors.

Sacramento, where the median housing price is $93,250, also gets some spillover pressure from the Bay Area, 75 miles miles southwest.

“We definitely feel that,” said Jim Sandman, executive vice president of the Sacramento Board of Realtors.

“You not only see the private buyers, you also see the brokers coming in from the Bay Area and the south Bay Area,” Sandman added. “Over the past year, many brokers have come in.”