San Francisco Bay Area $300,000 median home price far off $665,000 peak

A falling median price doesn't mean all homes are losing value at the same pace. Much of the median price decline is due to a larger share of foreclosed and distressed properties snatched up at bargain prices.

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com


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Deadline Newsroom - San Francisco Bay Area home sales rose for the fifth consecutive month in January, with sales buoyed by lower priced foreclosures that are also dragging down the median price.

San Diego-based MDA DataQuick reported a total of 5,050 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the nine-county Bay Area last month. That was down 26.7 percent from 6,889 in December, but up 40.8 percent from 3,586 in January 2008.

January sales, however, remained a shadow of peak sales.

Last month’s sales were the third-lowest for a January since 1988, when DataQuick’s statistics begin, and 20 percent below the average for the month. January sales have ranged from a low of 3,586 in 2008 to a high of 8,298 in 2005.

The median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos combined in the nine-county Bay Area fell to $300,000 last month. That was down 9.1 percent from $330,000 in December and down a record 45.5 percent from $550,000 in January 2008. The current median is 54.9 percent below the peak median of $665,000 reached in June and July of 2007.

Contra Costa County saw the median plummet from $845,00 last January to $525,000 last month, a 52.5 percent dive and the largest median price drop in the region.

The smallest median price decline was 24.5 percent in San Francisco. Silicon Valley (Santa Clara County) suffered a 37.4 percent dip.

A smaller median price doesn't mean all homes are losing value at the same pace.

Much of the median price decline is due to a larger share of foreclosed and distressed properties snatched up at bargain prices.

Foreclosures represented 54 percent of the Bay Area homes that resold last month, according to DataQuick, a real estate information service.

The regional market remains mixed.

Foreclosure activity has waned recently, but remains near record levels, while financing with adjustable-rate mortgages is near the all-time low, as is financing with multiple mortgages.

Down payment sizes and flipping rates are stable.

Non-owner occupied buying activity has edged higher recently to above-average levels in some areas as investors test the waters, MDA DataQuick reported.


© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist, parlayed 30 years of old-school journalism into a digital real estate news service, the San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews Group -- DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service and Web site and the Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's news back shop. Perkins is also a National Real Estate Examiner. All the news that really hits home from three locations -- that's location, location, location!

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