The median sale price for a single-family home in the Bay Area reached $1.13 million in September, a slight decline from this summer’s record highs. Homebuyers’ craving for suburban space continued, but cooled in the outer suburbs of Contra Costa and Marin counties, according to CoreLogic data.

Economists and agents expect a robust market heading into the holiday season, with low interest rates and millennial techies looking to buy.

The relatively short supply of homes for sale means buyers are acting fast. “What does come up, we bid on it,” said Fremont agent Sunil Sethi, “and we’re never alone.”

The median price for an existing single-family home in the Bay Area jumped 16% from last September, according to CoreLogic. The year-over-year gain reflects a pandemic-slowed market in 2020, which has rebounded to record levels since early this year.

Home prices rose in all nine Bay Area counties. But the biggest gains were in Alameda, where prices leaped 17.2% from the previous year to $1.13 million and Santa Clara, up 14% to $1.51 million.

Contra Costa County prices grew 9.3% to $820,000, San Mateo increased 8.3% to a region-high $1.79 million, and San Francisco rose 3.1% to $1.67 million.

Overall sales, including new units and condos, ticked up 6% from the previous September, suggesting buyers and sellers have eased their concerns about visiting and showing homes during the pandemic.

The Bay Area market has seen fewer highs and lows during the pandemic than other parts of the country, said CoreLogic economist Selma Hepp.

“We were really expecting, at this point, for sales to be lower,” Hepp said. “Demand is still there.” Sales did decline sharply in Marin and Napa counties, while closings grew by double-digit percentages in Santa Clara County and San Francisco — suggesting homebuyers are returning to urban and suburban homes near job centers.

In the East Bay, buyers saw more choices on the market in El Cerrito and Pinole. But agents planted fewer for sale signs in Clayton, Martinez and Walnut Creek. Home inventory also dropped in Fremont and Newark from the previous year, according to Bay East Association of Realtors. The median price in Berkeley in September reached $1.6 million, and nearly touched $1.5 million in Fremont, according to local data.

California Association of Realtors chief economist Jordan Levine told East Bay brokers that economic conditions are expected to improve with more people moving back to full-time work and continued low interest rates headed into 2022. After months of record lows, interest rates have climbed over 3% for a standard, fixed 30-year mortgage.

“For sellers, the market’s still pretty hot,” Levin said.

Santa Clara agent Alan Wang is seeing some buyer fatigue and a slight slowdown in the frenetic pace of spring and summer. But Wang still sees move-in-ready homes in Silicon Valley getting multiple offers and selling quickly.

After losing three or four bidding wars, some home shoppers have decided to wait until next year. “If you underestimate the market,” Wang said, “you’re going to get a reality check very quickly.”

Still, tech professionals continue to snap up homes in the Valley, he said. One of Wang’s clients fell hard for a fully renovated four-bedroom home in Belmont with stunning views of the hills. At least six buyers put in offers, driving the $3 million list price up to nearly $3.5 million. His clients won — but only after pushing to the edge of their budget.

“We knew the house was beautiful,” he said, “and we knew it was going to be a battle.”

Lamorinda agent Paddy Kehoe said the market has begun to level off a little. But shoppers still are willing to pay a premium for good locations, he said.

“Buyers are not afraid to bid up 15, 20, 25%,” Kehoe said. “There’s almost a sense of desperation.”

But is Elon Musk a comedian?

The 50-year-old uber-entrepreneur, with a net worth over $160 billion, took his turn at hosting Saturday Night Live.

Musk came on stage decked out head to toe in black, and launched a self-deprecating monologue about his social media antics and audacious ambitions. He revealed he’s the first SNL host with Asperger’s Syndrome, a type of autism.

Musk drew a round of applause. “So I won’t be making a lot of eye contact with the cast tonight,” he joked. “Don’t worry, I’m pretty good at running human in simulation mode.”

Online commenters were quick to point out that former SNL star Dan Aykroyd was also diagnosed with a mild diagnosis as a child.

Musk called it an honor to host the long-running NBC show. “I mean that. Sometimes after I say something, I have to say I mean that,” he said. “So people really know that I mean it. That’s because I don’t always have a lot of intonation or variation in how I speak. Which, I’m told, makes for great comedy.”

Musk also promoted his futuristic goals of widespread renewable energy and the need for humanity to become a multi-planetary species. “If I just posted that on Twitter, I’d be fine,” he said. “But I also write things like, ’69 days after 4/20 again haha.'”

Then, a mea culpa. “To anyone I’ve offended, I just want to say, I reinvented electric cars and I’m sending people to Mars in a rocket ship. Did you think I was also going to be a chill, normal dude?”

His mother, Mae Musk, joined him at the end of the monologue for a Mother’s Day celebration. Her Mother’s Day gift? Elon’s favorite crypto currency, Dogecoin, of course.

Musk followed up on the quip later on a Weekend Update segment. Wearing a bow tie and glasses, Musk handled repeated questions from hosts Michael Che and Colin Jost asking “What’s Dogecoin?”

Finally, Che nodded. “Oh, so it’s a hustle?”

“Yeah,” Musk said and laughed, “it’s a hustle.”

The former Silicon Valley resident appeared in several sketches, trying his acting chops as a doctor, video game character and very-Elon-like old west cowboy.

Musk has made numerous appearances on TV shows and movies. The businessman has made a side hustle as a showman, filling an IMDB page with guest appearances on South Park, The Big Bang Theory and Iron Man 2. He’s also said to be a real-life inspiration for fictional Iron Man Tony Stark.

The show was also streamed for the first time on YouTube to more than 100 countries, including his native South Africa, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, India, Russia and the UK.

In his day job, Musk serves as CEO of electric vehicle maker Tesla and SpaceX, and leads other ventures in artificial intelligence, solar power and subterranean vehicle transport. The Silicon Valley-based electric vehicle maker has been hitting record production and sales numbers.

But like comedy, the electric vehicle market is a competitive business. Right after Musk’s monologue, rival Ford purchased a spot for their new electric Mustang Mach-E.

Beginning at 10 a.m. June 22, Apple will kick off its conference, called WWDC 2020, with an online keynote address, likely involving Chief Executive Tim Cook. It will be the first time in the 31-year-history of the WWDC that the event won’t take place in front of a live audience.

Instead, in order to ensure the event as accessible as possible to what Apple says is a community of 23 million developers, and anyone else, the company is making Monday’s keynote from the Apple Park campus in Cupertino available to watch on YouTube, the Apple Developer app, the Apple Developer website and the Apple TV app.

Other events, such as what is being called a Platforms State of the Union keynote, and more than 100 engineering session, will be available to watch via Apple’s developer apps and website. The company is also hosting forum with Apple developers, and one-on-one developer labs, which are available by appointment.

“Developers are the hearts and lungs of the Apple ecosystem,” said Dan Ives, managing director with Wedbush Securities. “WWDC is setting up the next stage of growth for Cupertino and its platforms.”

Apple has said that by streaming its keynote, and holding the entire conference online, it expects this year’s event to be the largest in its history. Last year, in addition to streaming the WWDC keynote address, more than 5,000 attendees from 86 countries came to Apple’s event at the San Jose Convention Center.

This year’s WWDC will also be free, as opposed to prior years where attendees have paid around $1,600 after winning a lottery for tickets to the event.

Apple’s WWDC historically focuses on hardware, software, applications and a preview of the next version of the company’s operating systems for the iPhone, iPad and Mac computers. The company only occasionally reveals new products at the event.

For example, last year, one of the WWDC highlights was Apple announcing plans to separate iTunes into three standalone versions of the Apple Music, Apple Podcasts and Apple TV apps.

Gene Munster, of Loup Ventures, said he’s expecting Apple to show off several features for the upcoming release of iOS 14, the operating system behind Apple’s mobile devices. Among the features Munster said he is looking for are an updated fitness app, a language translator for Apple’s Safari browser and the ability to recall iMessages.

Ives described any mobile system upgrades as “a drumroll ahead of a major hardware release schedule ahead across the Cupertino product portfolio with iPhone 12.” Apple typically has an event in September to unveil the next iteration of the iPhone ahead of the year-end Christmas and holiday shopping season.

But, the event’s biggest announcement could be with regards to its line of Mac computers. Apple is expected to say it will replace the Intel processors it has used in its Macs since 2006 with its own ARM chips, with the first Macs running on ARM processors possibly being available in early 2021.

“It puts Apple in control of the timing of Mac hardware updates and should improve performance while reducing costs,” Munster said.

Attendees said they wanted Tesla to publicly divulge what it has learned about employees that have reportedly tested positive for COVID-19, and commit to providing stronger protections for its production line workers.

“It feels outrageous, and it feels like Tesla doesn’t care about human life,” said Carlos Gabriel, of Hayward, Gabriel said he started working as a production associate at Tesla in January, and stopped working when the company shut down its assembly lines in March. However, he also said he too worried about the company’s safety policies to come back to work, even though Alameda County health officials gave Tesla the green light to begin assembling vehicles last month.

“We were told to return at the end of May, but I don’t feel safe about the situation, yet,” Gabriel said. “They need to prove they really care about their workers.”

A group called the Workers Solidarity Action Network (WSAN) helped organize the gathering. Steven Zeltzer, of WSAN, was critical of Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, saying the high profile executive “wants to keep the (company’s) profit rising” at the costs of his employees’ safety. Zeltzer said his group wants Gov. Gavin Newsom to hire 1,000 new inspectors for the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/Health) to ensure that Tesla, and other companies, are adhering to health guidelines aimed at preventing the spread of coronavirus in the workplace.

Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment about its workers coronavirus concerns.

Last week the Washington Post reported that some Tesla employees had tested positive for COVID-19 since returning to work after the plant’s manufacturing operations were shut down for two months as part of the multi-county shelter-in-place rules mean to slow the spread of coronavirus across the region.

CalOSHA said in a statement given to this news organization that on June 11, it opened inspections at Tesla’s main plant, and a second location at its facility at 901 Page Avenue, in Fremont.

“The investigations are active and ongoing,” Cal/OSHA said, adding that the department “takes seriously its mandate to investigate workplace accidents, fatalities and complaints at workplaces throughout California.”

Asked about the gathering during a press conference Monday afternoon, Newsom said department of labor head Julie Su is providing leadership on that front. “She is entrusted to oversee the work done over at OSHA and, more broadly, that work is as important now than ever,” Newsom said. “Particularly as we battle this pandemic and try to mitigate the spread.”

Tesla employs approximately 10,000 people at Fremont. In May, the company got approval from Alameda County health officials to restart vehicle production at its plant after Chief Executive Elon Musk earlier opened the plant in violation of the shelter-in-place rules that were put into effect in March.

24 Hour Fitness said it made the decision to close the gyms and file for Chapter 11 due to its business being damaged by the coronavirus pandemic with forced the company to close its gyms under shelter-in-place orders implemented in March. The company had recently begun reopening gyms where allowed under new safety guidelines.

The 13 gyms around the Bay Area that 24 Hour Fitness is closing permanently are:

• Morgan Hill
• Berkeley Solano Avenue FitLite
• Capitol & McKee, in San Jose
• Fremont Sport
• Milpitas Active
• Alamo Express
• Walnut Creek Ignacio Center
• Market Street, Alemany Sport, Noe Valley FitLlite and North Point, in San Francisco
• Solano Mall in Fairfield
• Vallejo

Along with the Bay Area gyms, 24 Hour Fitness is closing at total of 42 clubs in California. The company said the closings will leave it with about 300 clubs around the country.

Starbucks said that in the coming days, it would send out more than 250,000 t-shirts that were designed in partnership with its Black Partner Network to its stores for employees to wear. In the meantime, Starbucks said its barisitas and other employees could wear their own t-shirts, pins that show support for the Black Lives Matter efforts.

Black Lives Matter. We continue to listen to our partners and communities and their desire to stand for justice together. The Starbucks Black Partner Network co-designed t-shirts with this graphic that will soon be sent to 250,000+ store partners. pic.twitter.com/Wexb45RcTE

— Starbucks (@Starbucks) June 12, 2020

“We trust you to do what’s right while never forgetting Starbucks is a welcoming third place where all are treated with dignity and respect,” Starbucks said, in a statement about the new t-shirt policy.

Starbucks’ new policy also comes on the heels of the company saying on Wednesday that because of effects of the coronavirus pandemic upon its operations. Starbucks said it will close 400 stores over the next 18 months, but also open 300 new stores over the next year, with an emphasis on pickup locations and mobile orders.

By the time U.S. stock markets closed, Apple shares had fallen by almost 5%, to close at $335.90, while Tesla also fell by 5%, to $972.84, just one day after reaching $1,000 a share for the first time. Cisco shares dropped by almost 8%, to close at $43.67.

Other sizable losses came from Intel, down by 6.5%, to finish the day at $59.70 a share; Facebook, which fell 5%, to $224.43; Alphabet, off by 4.2%, to close at $1,403.84 a share, and HP,  which saw its shares give up 7%, to end the day at $15.71.

The losses across the board sent the blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average to a loss of 1,861.82 points, or almost 7%, and finish at 25,128.17. The S&P 500 gave up almost 6%, to fall to 3,002.10, and the Nasdaq Composite Index shed 5.3%, to end the day at 9,492.73.

“The virus spike reports have coincided with the market falling, but they didn’t cause the drop,” said Murray Gunn, head of global research at Elliot Wave International, of Gainesville, Georgia. “The market bottomed in March when the virus was rampant. The market actually topped a few days ago when the virus appeared to be lessening.”

The reports of coronavirus cases rising in some states added to concerns about a second major wave of the virus working its way across the country just as many businesses are reopening and summer is about to start.

James McDonald, chief executive of Los Angeles-based Hercules Investments, said that after showing signs of strength, the stock market could turn south if “a stronger than expected second wave of the contagion causes a reversal in the now upward trajectories in air travel, restaurant bookings, hotel reservations and business restarts. This brake on the economy would reverse the gains and call into question the V-shaped recovery thesis.”

In California, where some counties have begun to allow in-store shopping and dining at restaurants after nearly three months of restrictions, the number of COVID-19 related deaths reached almost 5,000 on Wednesday, as almost 2,900 new cases were reported statewide. California now has almost 140,000 reported cases of coronavirus across the state. Other states that have begun reopening such as Arizona, Florida, Texas and North Carolina have seen their number of coronavirus cases on the rise.

The latest numbers on jobless claims also provided a mixed bag of data about the state of the economy, as the Labor Department said 1.54 million Americans filed for first-time unemployment assistance last week. That was down from the 1.9 million claims in the prior week, but also lifted the number of unemployment claims across the country to 44 million over the last three months.

Unemployment claims in California rose for the second-straight week, according to the Labor Department, which said 258,000 Californians filed for first time claims on top of the 228,600 claims in the week ending May 30.

“We can’t shut down the economy again,” Mnuchin said. “I think we’ve learned that if you shut down the economy, you’re going to create more damage.”

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said in an email to employees that now is the “time to go all out and bring the Tesla Semi to volume production,” according to Reuters, which said it had obtained a copy of Musk’s note. Musk said Tesla would build batteries and powertrains for the Semi at its Gigafactory in Nevada, with the rest of the truck’s components being built elsewhere in the United States.

Musk didn’t say where in the U.S. Tesla would build the remainder of the Semi. In addition to its factories in Fremont and Nevada, Tesla has a plant in Buffalo, N.Y., where it builds batteries and solar panel products. The company is also scouting sites in the U.S. for its next domestic Gigafactory, with Texas and Oklahoma reportedly on the short list of locations for the plant.

Tesla spokespeople didn’t return a request for comment about the company’s semi truck  plans. Tesla introduced the truck in 2017, but has produced only a small number of the vehicles. In April, Tesla said it would halt production on the Semi until 2021.

Investors used the report about Tesla’s semi truck plans as an impetus to get behind the company’s stock on Wall Street, and sent Tesla’s shares up by almost 9%, to close at $1,025.05. It was the first time Tesla’s stock price had ever climbed above $1,000 a share. Ives said the company’s share gains show “the confidence the Street has in Musk and company over the next year to further penetrate the massive electric vehicle opportunity despite COVID-19 headwinds.”

Tesla shares surged almost 9%, to an all-time high close of $1,025.05. Enthusiasm for Tesla was stoked by a report from Reuters which cited a memo to company employees from Chief Executive Elon Musk in which Musk said the company was ready to begin “volume production” of its electric semi truck.

Tesla debuted its electric semi in 2017, but has only produced a limited number of the trucks. In his memo, Musk said Tesla had been working on improving the semi’s design and now it was “time to go all out and bring the Tesla Semi to volume production.” Musk also said the semi truck’s batteries and powertrain would be built at the company’s gigafactory in Nevada, with other vehicle parts being built in other states.

Last month, Tesla said on its quarterly conference call that it was halting production of its semi truck, and wouldn’t go into full-scale production until 2021.

“Hitting the $1,000 threshold speaks to the confidence the Street has in Musk and company over the next year to further penetrate the massive electric vehicle opportunity despite COVID-19 headwinds,” said Dan Ives, managing director of Wedbush Securities. “The semi production news is another shot in the arm.”

With its gains, Tesla joined a rare club of companies with share prices of $1,000 or more. Among those are Google parent company Alphabet, which traded Wednesday at $1,459.72 a share, and Amazon, which was at $2,653.41 a share.

Two Tesla employees told the Washington Post that company supervisors said some Fremont workers had tested positive for coronavirus and were told to stay home from work. The Post said the Tesla workers it spoke to requested anonymity due to fear of retaliation at their workplace. The report says two workers who tested positive are based at Tesla’s seat manufacturing facility near the main Tesla factory.

Neither Tesla spokespeople nor representatives for the Alameda County Public Health Department returned requests for comment on the matter.

Tesla has had a contentious relationship with Alameda County since a Bay Area-wide shelter-in-place order went into effect in March as part of efforts to slow the spread of coronavirus. Tesla wasn’t included as an essential service under the shelter-in-place edict, but the company still kept its operations running for several days after the order went into effect.

In mid-May, Tesla and the county reached an agreement that let the company reopen its Fremont plant as long as it implemented social distancing and other methods to reduce the potential for coronavirus spreading around the facility.