It starts at neighborhood with good schools. Now it expands to more neighbors regardless of school district.  A three bedroom, one bath room single family house in Santa Clara listed at 499,000 dollars sold over 580,000 this week in a few days after it’s on the market. A two bedroom, two and half bathroom townhouse in north valley San Jose (95131) got 12 offers. Even though it’s listed at around 420k, there are four offers of the twelve came in at around 450k.

Is it a seasonal effect? Many buyers who are caught in this sudden bidding war asked and hoped so. Unfortunately, it’s not. It’s a fundamental change of the market. It happens not only in Silicon Valley, it goes nationwide.

Bloomberg recently reported that the home prices rise in half of the U.S. cities with the median sales price increased from a year earlier in 74 of 146 metropolian areas.

Sales of previously owned homes rose 5.3 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to the report. Purchases climbed 11.7 percent in the Midwest, 6.6 percent in the Northeast, 4.1 percent in the South, and 1.4 percent in the West.

The best-performing metro area was Cape Coral, Florida, where prices increased 28.1 percent from a year earlier. Prices rose 19 percent in Grand Rapids, Michigan.