A new article in the San Jose Mercury News reports an interesting contrast between the national, state and local real estate markets.

• May reports on the national level were a mixed bag with home sales down from April but up year-over-year.
• The California market continued to show consistent improvement with sales up from April and median house prices continuing to climb.
• Locally things are looking very good, with Santa Clara County boasting the highest median house price in the state at $630,000, and the SF Bay Area as a whole at $592,930.

Take a look at the entire article for more details.