DQNews Archived Article

Bay Area Home Sales Down

by Real Estate Analyst John Karevoll
May, 2000

La Jolla, CA.— Home sales in the Bay Area home sales saw their strongest decline in five years, the result of rising prices, rising mortgage interest rates, stock market turbulence and tight inventory, a real estate information service reported. A total of 6,263 resale houses were sold in the nine-county Bay Area last month. That was down 8.3 percent from 6,830 for March, and down 20.2 percent from 7,849 for April last year, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

The year-ago sales count was the highest for any April on record. The last time year-over-year sales declined this much was in May 1995 when the 4,088 sales count was down 24.4 percent from 5,407 the year before.

"Is the Bay Area's real estate market going to cool off? Maybe a little, but fundamentals such as economic growth, population growth and the creation of well-paying jobs are still in place. Prices are probably close to a plateau, and sales counts may ease off a bit, but the market will basically stay strong," said Mike Ela, DataQuick president.

The median price paid for resale house in the Bay Area was $358,000 last month. That was up 4.7 percent from $342,000 for the month before and up 22.6 percent from $292,000 for April last year.

DataQuick, which was sold last month to Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts. The numbers for Napa County are estimated because of incomplete data availability.

Resale houses