by Calculated Risk on 9/20/2006 04:11:00 PM

DataQuick reports: Bay Area home sales decline, prices level off

Home sales in the Bay Area declined again last month as prices continued to level off, a real estate information service reported.
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The median price paid for a Bay Area home was $620,000 last month. That was down 1.1 percent from $627,000 in July, and up 0.2 percent from $619,000 for August a year ago. Last month's year-over- year increase was the lowest since March 2002 when the $381,000 median fell 1.3 percent.

Bay Area California Median Home Prices
Area	Aug '04	Aug '05	Aug '06	Pct Change
Alameda	$497K	$586K	$577K	-1.5%
Contra Costa	$468K	$567K	$567K	0.0%
Marin	$717K	$822K	$803	-2.3%
Napa	$511K	$603K	$616K	2.2%
San Francisco	$668K	$745K	$750K	0.7%
San Mateo	$649K	$773K	$721K	-6.7%
Santa Clara	$539K	$654K	$658K	0.6%
Solano	$377K	$474K	$483K	1.9%
Sonoma	$462K	$554K	$557K	0.5%
Bay Area	$520K	$619K	$620K	0.2%

I added the August 2004 median prices to give a two year perspective on prices.

A total of 9,128 new and resale houses and condos were sold in the nine-county region last month. That was up 14.9 percent from 7,941 for July, and down 24.9 percent from 12,154 for August last year, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

Last month was the slowest August since 1997 when 9,080 homes were sold. DataQuick's statistics go back to 1988: the slowest August was in 1992 with 6,326 sales, the strongest was in 2003 with 12,488. The average August sales count since 1988 is 9,530.

Bay Area California Homes Sold
Area	Aug '04	Aug '05	Aug '06	Pct Change
Alameda	2,742	2,612	1,876	-28.2%
Contra Costa	2,560	2,497	1,910	-23.5%
Marin	478	438	380	-13.2%
Napa	226	226	119	-47.3%
San Francisco	735	662	613	-7.4%
San Mateo	986	969	792	-18.3%
Santa Clara	3,017	2,832	2,126	-24.9%
Solano	1,015	1,016	668	-34.3%
Sonoma	915	902	644	-28.6%
Bay Area	12,674	12,154	9,128	-24.9%