Bay Area home sales median has sunk to a new 8 year low and 47.6% of all sales have been foreclosed on sometime over the last 12 months according to the new DQNews.com data released today.
Bay Area home sales decelerated in November but beat the year-ago mark for the third consecutive month. The allure of discounted foreclosures continued to drive sales in affordable inland markets, which helped push the median sale price down to its lowest point since former President Bill Clinton was in the White House.
The median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos combined in the nine-county Bay Area fell to $350,000 last month. That was down 6.7 percent from $375,000 in October and down a record 44.4 percent from $629,000 in November 2007, according to MDA DataQuick, a San Diego-based real estate information service.
The November median sale price – the point where half of the homes sold for more and half for less – stood at its lowest since it was $350,000 in September 2000. It was 47.4 percent below the peak median of $665,000 reached last year in June, July and August.
The median has fallen on a year-over-year basis for 12 consecutive months, yanked lower by several factors: price depreciation; a shift toward more sales in the less-expensive inland markets; slower high-end sales; and buyers’ preference for lower-priced foreclosures.
Last month 47.6 percent of all homes that resold in the Bay Area had been foreclosed on at some point in the prior 12 months, up from 44.0 percent in October and 10.1 percent a year ago.
At the county level, foreclosure resales last month ranged from 10.0 percent of resales in San Francisco to 63.6 percent in Solano County. In the other seven counties, November foreclosure resales were as follows: Alameda, 44.4 percent; Contra Costa, 63.0 percent; Marin, 22.6 percent; Napa, 40.8 percent; Santa Clara, 38.9 percent; San Mateo, 21.8 percent; Sonoma, 51.6 percent.
My sense is this is true for Napa County as well even though the statistics show the home sales for previously foreclosed homes to be 40.8%. In one recent MLS search for a first time home buyer with a maximum purchase price of $250,000, 19 of 37 homes and condos in the City of Napa were previous foreclosures, 51.1% and another 13 were short sales, a 86.5% total for all distressed sales. And as a Realtor working in the trenches every day, I haven’t seen any sign of this changing yet. I will keep you informed when I do.
johnny says
December 29, 2008 at 10:21 amlNO9Pb Thanks for good post