Remarkably, condo prices today are just about where the median price for all homes stood at the peak of the market in 1989. To a point. A continuing lack of inventory and pent-up demand generated by stock market gains are causing buyers to pay extraordinary prices to get the properties they want,'' said Mary Gullixson, an agent with Alain Pinel in Menlo Park. New home sales are also tracking just behind stock market swings, according to the Irvine-based Meyers Group, which monitors new home sales. After a hot first two quarters, new home sales slumped along with the stock market in the third quarter last year, but sales have since returned as the stock market rebounded.
Stocks continue to gain importance as a leading indicator for Silicon Valley's housing market.
I'm not going to buy right now,' '' said John Burns, a managing director with the Meyers Group. Until buyers return in full force, developers aren't raising new home prices beyond where they were when the market slumped last year, Burns said. The Mercury News. The information you receive online from The Mercury News is protected by the copyright laws of the United States. The copyright laws prohibit any copying, redistributing, retransmitting, or repurposing of any copyright-protected material.