California home prices broke another all-time high record. Here’s what it costs to buy now

California median housing prices reached another all-time high in May, soaring 39% over the same in 2020.

The median price for a single-family home in California is now $818,260, according to state figures announced Friday by the Department of Finance. It’s the second month in a row where prices are above $800,000. In March, the average price was $758,990.

Californians are increasingly worried about the rising costs. Ninety percent of Californians are concerned about housing prices, according to a March Public Policy Institute of California report.

That was up from 63% of Californians saying housing affordability was a big problem in their communities in a February 2020 survey by the same organization.

California home prices climbed during the coronavirus pandemic, when employers allowed workers to telecommute and people with stable incomes largely were not affected by the recession triggered by COVID-19.

Sacramento real estate experts noticed subtle signs of the local market cooling this month, such as fewer homes getting multiple offers.

“My take is that the data is starting to show some limits to what buyers are willing and able to pay,” economist Jeffrey Michael of the University of the Pacific, told The Sacramento Bee earlier this month.

Working with a budget surplus, Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed setting aside $12 billion for affordable housing and preventing homelessness, but those numbers are in flux as budget negotiations remain ongoing between Newsom and the Legislature.

A report released in March from the California Housing Partnership found that California must build 1.2 million more affordable homes by 2030 — or about 120,000 per year — to keep pace with statewide demand. In Sacramento, nearly 60,000 renters don’t have access to an affordable home.

Existing single-family home sales in May were down 2% from this April at 446,000 units, but up 86% from last year’s low pandemic low of 239,000 units, according to the Department of Finance.