"The median price of a home in California continued to post dramatic gains last month, and has increased by double digits every month for the past 12 months," said the association's president, Toby Bradley. "While this trend is due in part to favorable interest rates, it also reflects that the supply of homes for sale in California continues to fall short of meeting the state's long-term housing needs."

Closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes in California totaled 542,120 in November at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate, according to information collected by the California Association of Realtors from more than 90 local Realtor associations statewide. Statewide home resale activity increased 9.8 percent from the 493,870 sales pace recorded in November 2001.

"Year-to-date sales of single-family homes were up 13 percent through November compared to last year," said the association's vice president and chief economist, Leslie Appleton-Young. "Sales posted a 6.4 percent decline last month compared to a October's strong pace."

The median price of an existing, single-family detached home in California during November 2002 was $328,310, a 21.5 percent increase over the $270,210 median for November 2001. Saratoga logged in with a median price of $1,150,500; the median was $1,050,000 last year at the same time. In Los Gatos, the median price was $1,106,500 in November 2002, compared to $930,000 in November 2001.

Information provided in this column is presented by the Realtor members of the Silicon Valley Association of Realtors at www.silvar.org. Send questions on any topic to jnewton@jnpr.com.