DQNews Archived Article

Bay Area Home Prices Surge

by Real Estate Analyst John Karevoll
March, 2000

La Jolla, CA.— Ignoring recent upticks in mortgage interest rates and fueled by a surging economy, Bay Area home sales continued to rise in February as prices increased at their fastest rate since 1989, a real estate information service reported.

A total of 4,861 resale houses were sold in the nine-county Bay Area last month. That was up 12.9 percent from 4,307 for January, and up 11.4 percent from 4,365 for February last year, according to DataQuick.

Last month's sales count was the highest for any February in DataQuick's records. The information provider's statistics go back to 1988 and it's unlikely that sales counts were higher before that.

"Although we are not seeing any severe danger signals, obviously a surge of activity like this will level off at some point. The underlying fundamentals still look pretty strong for this spring and summer," said Mike Ela, who heads up DataQuick.

The median price paid for a resale Bay Area house was $333,000 last month, an all-time high. The median was up 4.4 percent from January's $319,000, and up 18.5 percent from $281,000 for February last year.

DataQuick monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts.

The year-over-year increase in median has been in the double digits since October. The 18.5 percent increase is the highest since August 1989 when it was up 19.3 percent to $235,000 from $197,000 a year earlier.

Marin County's median jumped to $525,000 last month, the first county statewide ever to pass the half-million mark, DataQuick reported.

Resale houses