Stockton, Calif.-area housing market has another boom year.

By Bruce Spence, The Record, Stockton, Calif. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Dec. 27--It's been yet another good run this year in the local housing market, fed with the usual masses of Bay Area residents looking for affordable housing in the Central Valley.

Based on building permits pulled countywide so far this year, home construction from January through November isn't far behind last year's record pace.

And brokers and agents report that with the number of existing homes on the market down sharply in the past 18 months, prices once again rose year-to-year by at least 25 percent.

California's real-estate market led the nation …