DQNews Archived Article

Bay Area Decline Eases

by Real Estate Analyst John Karevoll
July, 2000

La Jolla, CA.— Bay Area home sales went up in June to a high for the year, as price increases eased off a bit, a real estate information service reported. A total of 7,353 resale houses were sold in the nine-county Bay Area last month. That was up 4.0 percent from 7,013 for May, and down 8.4 percent from 8,031 for May last year, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

The year-ago sales counts for April through August were record highs.

"Bay Area prices have been going up at an unsustainable pace the past half year, and we may be seeing price increases starting to level off. The economy is still growing, though, and it's not very likely that prices will decrease on a year-over-year basis anytime soon," said Mike Ela, DataQuick president.

The median price paid for a resale house in the Bay Area was $370,000 in June. That was unchanged from May, and up 18.6 percent from $312,000 for June last year.

DataQuick, now a business unit of 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