Article source: http://southsanfrancisco.patch.com/groups/real-estate/p/local-home-prices-among-highest-in-bay-area

A total of 5,404 houses and condominiums were sold, down 1.8 percent from January and more than 6 percent from February of 2012, DataQuick said.

The median sales price for a home in the nine-county area was $405,000. That was down 2.4 percent from January but still nearly 25 percent higher than a year ago.

Although prices remain well below the peak of several years ago, they have soared by double digits each month for the past nine months when compared with the same months a year earlier. The gains have topped 20 percent in the past four months in year-over-year comparisons, DataQuick said.

“Isn’t this Economics 101? Supply and demand?” DataQuick President John Walsh asked in a statement. “If demand outstrips supply in a free market, the price goes up.”

“Now, with a recovering economy, prices still closer to the bottom than to the top, with ultra-low mortgage interest rates and tight supply, the stage is set for price gains. This spring is going to be interesting,” Walsh said.

There were continuing indications that California’s housing market is recovering from its five-year slump.

“Foreclosure activity is well below peak levels reached in the last few years. Financing with multiple mortgages is low, and down payment sizes are stable,” DataQuick said in a statement.

Sales in February shifted from low-cost, distressed homes to mid-market and higher properties, with the number of homes selling for $500,000 or more jumping by 27.7 percent, DataQuick reported.

Foreclosures and short sales, those in which the price was less than the amount owed on the property, both were down over January and there were a lot fewer of them compared with February a year ago.

Investors, as compared with first-time homebuyers, accounted for a sizeable chunk of the sales. Absentee buyers, who mostly are investors, bought 28.2 percent of all Bay area homes.

That was an all-time high based on DataQuick figures going back to 2000, the company said.

In Southern California, homes sales continued strong, with 15,945 sold – the most for a February in the past six years.

The median sales price in Los Angeles and five other counties was $320,000, DataQuick reported Wednesday.

Article source: http://www.vcstar.com/news/2013/mar/14/sf-bay-area-february-home-sales-dip/

A total of 5,404 houses and condominiums were sold, down 1.8 percent from January and more than 6 percent from February of 2012, DataQuick said.

The median sales price for a home in the nine-county area was $405,000. That was down 2.4 percent from January but still nearly 25 percent higher than a year ago.

Although prices remain well below the peak of several years ago, they have soared by double digits each month for the past nine months when compared with the same months a year earlier. The gains have topped 20 percent in the past four months in year-over-year comparisons, DataQuick said.

“Isn’t this Economics 101? Supply and demand?” DataQuick President John Walsh asked in a statement. “If demand outstrips supply in a free market, the price goes up.”

“Now, with a recovering economy, prices still closer to the bottom than to the top, with ultra-low mortgage interest rates and tight supply, the stage is set for price gains. This spring is going to be interesting,” Walsh said.

There were continuing indications that California’s housing market is recovering from its five-year slump.

“Foreclosure activity is well below peak levels reached in the last few years. Financing with multiple mortgages is low, and down payment sizes are stable,” DataQuick said in a statement.

Sales in February shifted from low-cost, distressed homes to mid-market and higher properties, with the number of homes selling for $500,000 or more jumping by 27.7 percent, DataQuick reported.

Foreclosures and short sales, those in which the price was less than the amount owed on the property, both were down over January and there were a lot fewer of them compared with February a year ago.

Investors, as compared with first-time homebuyers, accounted for a sizeable chunk of the sales. Absentee buyers, who mostly are investors, bought 28.2 percent of all Bay area homes.

That was an all-time high based on DataQuick figures going back to 2000, the company said.

In Southern California, homes sales continued strong, with 15,945 sold – the most for a February in the past six years.

The median sales price in Los Angeles and five other counties was $320,000, DataQuick reported Wednesday.

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Article source: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/03/14/5262908/sf-bay-area-february-home-sales.html

The median paid last month was $421,000, up 1 percent from
June and 13 percent from a year earlier, the San Diego-based
data firm said today in a statement. It was the highest for the
nine-county region since $447,000 in August 2008. Sales rose on
a year-over-year basis for the 13th straight month.

Across California, housing has been buoyed by consumer
sentiment and low mortgage rates, with coastal areas like San
Francisco and West Los Angeles showing the biggest price
advances, Stuart Gabriel, director of the Ziman Center for Real
Estate at the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a
telephone interview. Inland cities still have widespread
negative equity, with many homes valued at less than their
mortgage balances, he said.

The median price statewide rose almost 12 percent from a
year earlier to $281,000, the highest since September 2008,
DataQuick said today in a separate report. Foreclosure deals
made up 22 percent of transactions, the smallest share since
November 2007, the company said.

“Housing has bottomed and, in fact, has turned,” Gabriel
said. “The coasts are among the hottest markets in the country.
Underwater homes are a limiting factor, but as prices rise they
will naturally bring forward new inventory and a willingness by
owners to market properties.”

‘Big Challenges’

Buyers in “mid- and move-up markets” fueled the price
gain in the Bay Area, with properties offered at $500,000 or
more accounting for 42 percent of total sales, up from 36
percent a year earlier, DataQuick President John Walsh said.
Mortgage availability “remains one of the big challenges in the
Bay Area,” he said in the statement.

Distressed deals in the Bay Area including foreclosures and
short sales, where the purchase price is lower than the loan
balance, made up almost 35 percent of transactions, down from 37
percent in June and 45 percent a year earlier, according to the
company.

Purchases financed by adjustable-rate mortgages were used
in 13 percent of Bay Area deals in July, down from 14 percent
both in June and a year earlier. Since 2000, those loans have
been used in almost half of all home purchases in the region,
DataQuick said.

Sales totaled 8,461, up 23 percent from July 2011.

San Francisco tops a list of U.S. metropolitan areas with
improved residential markets, based on price gains, inventories
and foreclosures, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Dan Levy in San Francisco at
dlevy13@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Kara Wetzel at
kwetzel@bloomberg.net

Article source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-08-15/san-francisco-area-home-prices-jump-to-a-four-year-high

The region’s median home price was up 4.3% from May and 10.4% from June 2011, real estate firm DataQuick of San Diego said. The median, which is the point at which half the homes in the area sold for more and half for less, was $417,000 last month.

“Some of today’s stats are similar to what we saw in the thick of the housing downturn back in 2009, only in reverse: Instead of foreclosure resales soaring they’re waning, and instead of high-end sales slumping they’re posting some of the larger sales gains,” DataQuick president John Walsh said in a news release. “This is one of the main reasons that various price measures are pointing higher — a so-called change-in-market mix. While last month’s jump in the median sale price might to some extent reflect prices edging a bit higher in certain markets, mostly it’s a reflection of the change in market mix.”

Sales of homes in the nine-county Bay Area were down 2.6% from the prior month but up 7.2% to total 8,577.

ALSO:

June housing starts jump to four-year high

Drop in foreclosure sales is boosting Southland prices

Southern California housing market posts gains in June

Article source: http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-home-sales-20120718,0,2438696.story

The median price for houses and condominiums in the nine-
county Bay Area increased to $400,000, up 2.6 percent from April
and 7.5 percent from May 2011, the San Diego-based data seller
said today in a statement. Almost 39 percent of purchases
exceeded $500,000, the most since August 2010.

“It’s not exactly a stampede, but people are starting to
move off the housing-market sidelines in numbers we haven’t seen
in quite a while,” DataQuick President John Walsh said in the
statement. “Foreclosures are a significantly smaller portion of
what’s selling, and the higher-cost coastal markets are seeing
more activity.”

Total sales in the Bay Area rose to 8,810, up 15 percent
from the previous month and 26 percent from May 2011. It was the
highest tally for the month since 2006. Foreclosure sales
accounted for 22 percent of the total, down from almost 27
percent a year earlier and the lowest since January 2008.

Prices in both San Francisco and Santa Clara counties rose
6.2 percent, to a median $701,000 and $529,000, respectively.
The biggest increase was in Contra Costa County, where the
median gained 16 percent to $295,000. The Marin County median
price fell 2 percent to $627,000, according to DataQuick.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Dan Levy in San Francisco at
dlevy13@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Kara Wetzel at
kwetzel@bloomberg.net

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Article source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-14/san-francisco-bay-area-home-prices-climb-to-22-month-high.html

Enlarge image

San Francisco Bay Area Home Prices Increase 8.3% in April

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Real estate agent Brad Smith, right, with potential home buyers in San Francisco.

Real estate agent Brad Smith, right, with potential home buyers in San Francisco. Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Home prices in the San Francisco Bay
area rose in April for the first annual gain in 19 months as
buyers acquired costlier properties, according to DataQuick.

The median paid for houses and condominiums was $390,000 in
the nine-county region, up 8.3 percent from $360,000 in April
2011 and 8.9 percent from $358,000 in March, the San Diego-based
data firm said in a statement. The year-over-year advance was
the first since September 2010.

The smallest share of foreclosure deals in four years and a
shift in sales toward move-up markets helped to boost values,
DataQuick President John Walsh said in the statement. Buyers are
seeking to take advantage of decreased prices and record-low
mortgage rates, according to the company.

“It appears the market is taking a step in the direction
of normalization, but only a step,” Walsh said. “The mortgage
market is critical, as is market mix and the receding importance
of foreclosure resales.”

A total of 7,675 homes sold last month, little changed from
March and up 13 percent from a year earlier. The tally, the
highest for April in six years, was still well below the monthly
average of 9,088 sales going back to 1988, DataQuick said.

Foreclosures accounted for 22 percent of sales, down from
28 percent a year earlier and the lowest since January 2008.
Homes priced at $500,000 or more made up 38 percent of all
sales, up from a 36 percent share in April 2011, DataQuick said.
Jumbo loans above the old conforming limit of $417,000 were used
in almost 36 percent of deals, up from 32 percent.

Median prices rose 6.9 percent from a year earlier to
$700,000 in San Francisco, and 9.3 percent to $513,500 in Santa
Clara County. The biggest price gain was in Contra Costa County,
up 12 percent to $288,750, according to DataQuick.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Dan Levy in San Francisco at
dlevy13@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Kara Wetzel at
kwetzel@bloomberg.net

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Article source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-17/san-francisco-bay-area-home-prices-increase-8-3-in-april.html

A new survey finds that the number of homes sold in California during the month of March has hit a five-year high as prices hold steady.

Real estate research firm DataQuick reported Thursday that more than 37,000 new and existing homes and condominiums sold in the state last month.

That’s almost a 3 percent rise over the same time last year and the highest number since nearly 40,000 homes sold in March 2007.

The median price paid for a home in California last month was $251,000, up less than a percent compared to a year ago.

More than half of last month’s sales statewide were of homes either in foreclosure or being sold for less than what the seller owed.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

Home prices across much of the San Francisco Bay area showed signs of leveling off as March sales hit their highest point in five years, a real estate research firm reported Thursday.

Nearly 7,700 new and existing homes and condominiums sold in a nine-county region in March, up more than 9 percent from the same period in 2011, according to a survey by DataQuick. It’s the highest tally for the month since more than 8,300 homes were sold in March 2007.

The San Diego-based firm said the jump was spurred in part by lower prices, though the decline compared to the same time last year was minimal. The median sales price last month was $358,000, a drop of less than 1 percent from the median March 2011 price of $360,000.

“While the changes we’re seeing are incremental, they’re incremental in a positive direction,” said Dataquick president John Walsh.

About one-quarter of existing home sales were for properties in foreclosure during the previous year. Another 19 percent were “short sales” — when the price is below the amount owed by the seller.

All-cash sales favored by investors accounted for just less than 30 percent of March sales in the region, while absentee buyers made up a little less than one-quarter of all sales. Both rates were near historic highs.

DataQuick said foreclosures in the Bay Area remained above typical levels but were down compared to the peak of the housing crisis.

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/04/19/state/n095526D64.DTL

SAN FRANCISCO

Home prices across much of the San Francisco Bay area showed signs of leveling off as March sales hit their highest point in five years, a real estate research firm reported Thursday.

Nearly 7,700 new and existing homes and condominiums sold in a nine-county region in March, up more than 9 percent from the same period in 2011, according to a survey by DataQuick. It’s the highest tally for the month since more than 8,300 homes were sold in March 2007.

The San Diego-based firm said the jump was spurred in part by lower prices, though the decline compared to the same time last year was minimal. The median sales price last month was $358,000, a drop of less than 1 percent from the median March 2011 price of $360,000.

“While the changes we’re seeing are incremental, they’re incremental in a positive direction,” said Dataquick president John Walsh.

About one-quarter of existing home sales were for properties in foreclosure during the previous year. Another 19 percent were “short sales” — when the price is below the amount owed by the seller.

All-cash sales favored by investors accounted for just less than 30 percent of March sales in the region, while absentee buyers made up a little less than one-quarter of all sales. Both rates were near historic highs.

DataQuick said foreclosures in the Bay Area remained above typical levels but were down compared to the peak of the housing crisis.

Article source: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-04/D9U85KVG0.htm