by Calculated Risk on 7/14/2011 04:09:00 PM

From DataQuick: Bay Area June Home Sales Surge, Median Price Edges Up to 2011 High

Bay Area home sales rose sharply last month from May to the highest level for any month since June 2010, when outgoing homebuyer tax credits gave housing demand a final boost.
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A total of 7,998 new and resale houses and condos sold in the nine-county Bay Area last month. ... June sales have ranged from a low of 7,118 in 1993 to a high of 15,735 in 2004, while the average is 10,129. Sales last month fell 21.0 percent below the June average. June is normally a strong month and, among all months, it’s had the highest number of sales most often – seven of the past 23 years.
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“It’s difficult to point to one specific thing that caused last month’s sales to jump more than usual from May. It wasn’t just in the Bay Area – we saw it across much of the state. June likely benefitted from a combination of factors, such as price reductions, low mortgage rates and perhaps a batch of short sale transactions from spring that took months to close. Bargain hunters, mainly investors and first-time buyers, remain very active,” said John Walsh, DataQuick president. ... “Let’s keep in mind, however, that last month was not a particularly strong June, historically speaking, and one month’s increase in sales from the prior month doesn’t constitute a trend.”
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Last month 399 newly built houses and condos sold in the Bay Area, down 43.8 percent from a year earlier and the second-lowest for a June in DataQuick’s records, behind 360 new-home sales in 1993.

This is another report suggesting an increase in existing home sales in June compared to the reported 4.81 million sold in May on a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) basis (before the coming benchmark revisions).

Hopefully Tom Lawler will have a June forecast soon. National existing home sales for June will be reported on July 20th. New home sales will reported on July 26th.

Note on New Home sales: DataQuick reports when the escrow closes, and the Census Bureau reports when a contract is signed. So you can't use this low level of sales to forecast June new home sales - this is just confirmation that there were very few contracts signed 6 months or so ago (since it takes about 6 months to close a new home).