Los Altos was the top spot in September, with a median price of $1.5 million, followed by Manhattan Beach ($1.4 million), Newport Beach ($1.3 million), Burlingame ($1.3 million), Los Gatos ($1.2 million), Rancho Palos Verdes ($1.1 million), Danville ($1 million), Cupertino ($968,750), San Clemente ($940,000) and Santa Barbara, $917,500. It gets a little confusing because the median price of certain Zip codes of certain communities (Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Malibu) are often higher than the top 10 listed here.

The California Association of Realtors also reported that home sales statewide fell 31.7 percent from a year earlier, while the median price of an existing home rose just 1.8 percent. No big surprises - the numbers pretty much correspond to what we've been reporting the last couple of weeks.