Dive Brief:

• If part of the reason for housing prices in San Francisco being what they are weren't that there is so little land available, it would be a fantastic market in which to build and sell homes.
• Last month, the median price for houses and condos went over $1 million, and homes at that price or higher accounted for a quarter of all sales in the San Francisco region between April and June, according to numbers tracked by CoreLogic DataQuick.
• Tech millionaires bidding up prices until their cash offers push out other buyers are part of the reason for housing inflation, but people familiar with the market say there also is pressure from Asian investors and retirees coming from places where the idea of $1 million for 800 square feet is not as shocking.

Dive Insight:

Paragon Real Estate Group agent George Limperis attributes the price structure partly to the presence of people who have lived in New York, Hong Kong or London and have what less-traveled buyers might consider a skewed sense of what housing costs. During the same April-June period when San Francisco saw so many high-end sales, six of nine counties in the area set records for the number of houses going for $2 million or more.