Bay Area median home prices, houses sold, continue to decline

By Brent Begin, Bay City News Service

December14, 2006

Home prices in the Bay Area last month continued to drop compared to a year ago, a real estate information service reported today.

The median price paid in November for new and resale houses and condominiums in the nine Bay Area counties was $616,000, down 1.4 percent from last November's median of $625,000, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

Across the Bay Area, the number of homes sold also dropped, compared with sales a year ago.

Sales numbers declined by between around 22 and 32 percent, according to DataQuick.

Most of the 7,204 homes sold in November were in the more populous counties of Alameda, Santa Clara and Contra Costa, which together saw 4,693 sales. Fewer than 600 homes were sold in each of the other Bay Area counties.

In November last year, 9,717 homes were sold.

"Right now it looks like the Bay Area market is settling in on a price level that could last until spring. What happens after that depends on broader economic factors, including interest rates, job growth and household incomes," DataQuick President Marshall Prentice said in a statement.

While the median price of homes sold dropped across the region, San Francisco, Marin and Santa Clara counties continued to see median price increases, of 0.7 percent, 4 percent and 1.8 percent respectively.

At a median of $841,000, prices remained relatively high in Marin County, where 268 homes were sold in November, while relatively lower-priced homes exchanged hands in Solano County, where the median price of the 565 homes sold last month was $446,000.

According to DataQuick, indicators of market distress remain at a moderate level, with foreclosure activity rising but within a normal range and down-payment sizes stable.

The "typical" monthly mortgage payment in the Bay Area in November was $2,865, the company reported. Adjusted for inflation, payments are 12.9 percent higher than they were at the top of the previous real estate cycle, in early 1990.

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