DQNews Archived Article

Bay Area Home Sales Continue to Surge!

by Real Estate Analyst John Karevoll
June, 1996

La Jolla, CA.— Bay Area home sales continued at a brisk pace in May as prices inched up to their highest level in almost five years, a real estate information service reported. The median price paid for a resale house in May was $239,500. That was up 2.8 percent from $233,000 the month before and up 4.6 percent from $229,000 for May a year ago, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

This May's median was the highest since May 1991 when it was $241,000. A high point for Bay Area prices was reached in late 1989 and early 1990 when the median was over $250,000. The current low was reached in early 1995 when the median was around $220,000. Ups and downs of price medians are the result of fluctuations in home values and in market mix.

"More of the larger homes are selling now. The so-called 'move-up' market has been dormant for a couple of years, but last year we saw sales activity in that category start to increase in the South Bay. Now the increase is moving into other markets," said Donald L. Cohn, DataQuick CEO.

The number of Bay Area resale houses sold in May was 5,880. That was up 8.5 percent from April's 5,419 and up 43.8 percent from 4,088 for May a year ago. The year-over-year sales increase is the tenth in a row. The sales count for May was the fourth highest of the last five years.

So far this year 22,658 resale houses have been sold in the nine-county region, up 33.2 percent from 17,013 last year. San Mateo County has experienced the strongest sales surge with year-to-date sales up 46.7 percent. At the other end of the scale, Alameda County has had a more modest 21.7 percent increase. DataQuick monitors all real estate purchasing and financing in California and other states, and provides information to consumers, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts.

Sales in other home categories are also up. Sales counts for resale condos have been increasing since September and sales of newly-built homes have been up since October, DataQuick reported.

Resale houses