SAN FRANCISCO (DQNews) — Home sales in the San Francisco Bay area 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. The median price rose slightly from May but remained below the year-ago level for the ninth consecutive month amid a sluggish move-up market and a higher share of sub-$300,000 transactions, a real estate information service reported.
A total of 7,998 new and resale houses and condos sold in the nine-county Bay Area last month. That was up 14.5% from 6,988 in May but down 4.5% from 8,373 in June 2010, according to San Diego-based DataQuick. .
On average, Bay Area sales have risen 4.9% between May and June since 1988, when DataQuick’s statistics begin.
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Last month’s sales were the lowest for the month of June since 2008, when 7,178 homes sold. 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% 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.
In June last year – the peak month for 2010 – sales were bolstered by state and federal efforts to stimulate the housing market via homebuyer tax credits. Those credits had expired or been largely depleted by July 2010, when sales plunged 19% from the month before and 23% from the previous July.
While the 14.5% jump in sales last month from May was nearly triple the normal increase, higher May-to-June gains were recorded as recently as 2008 and 2009, which logged 15.5% and 16.1% gains, respectively.
“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.
Article source: http://www.thestreet.com/story/11185614/1/san-francisco-homes-sales-jump-to-1-year-high.html