Median Price for a Home in San Francisco: $870,000

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Although still far below their peak levels, home prices in San Francisco are returning to jaw dropping levels.

The median price for a home in the City by the Bay hit $870,000 in May, a 24.1 percent jump from the $701,000 in May of 2012, according to Dataquick.

Overall, the median price for a home in the nine-county Bay Area last month was $519,000, up 1.8 percent from April and 29.8 percent from $400,000 in May, 2012. That is the highest level since March, 2008.

The Bay Area median price peaked in the summer of 2007 at $665,000, before plummeting to a low of $290,000 in March 2009.

"In a year or two, we'll probably see in hindsight that a bounce off the bottom was faster and easier than later incremental gains in a more balanced market," said John Walsh, DataQuick president. "As it is, today's market is still re-establishing equilibrium. Among potential buyers there is clearly a sense that favorable factors are lined up right now in a way they may not be in a year, or three or five years."

The number of sales in the Bay area remained "below average" in May, rising 12.1 percent in May to 8,541, which was still down 4 percent from a year earlier.

But Northern California prices are far outpacing prices in Southern California. In Orange County, the high-priced area south of Los Angeles, the median price is $540,000, up from $435,000 a year ago.

The volume of Southern California sales hit the highest level in seven years, while prices reached a five-year high, Dataquick found.