Bay Area Home Sales Down, Prices Leveling Off

August 24, 2001

La Jolla, CA--Home sales in the Bay Area continued to drop last month, although the decline was the smallest in eight months. Prices remain flat.

A total of 8,459 new and resale houses and condos were sold in the nine- county region last month. That was down 6.1 percent from 9,011 in June and down 4.4 percent from 8,848 for July last year, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

The 4.4 percent decline in sales was the most moderate since last November when the 9,122 sales count was virtually unchanged from 9,125 a year before. So far this year 53,001 Bay Area homes have been sold, down 15.9 percent from 63,022 for the same seven month period last year.

"No, the bottom has not fallen out of the Bay Area's real estate market, as some people seem to think. The market was frenzied last year and the year before, now it's re-normalizing. So far, we haven't seen any significant price drops, although sales counts in some prestige home markets are off. We don't know if that's temporary or not," said Mike Ela, DataQuick's president.

The median price paid for a Bay Area home was $382,000 last month. That was up 0.3 percent from June's $381,000 and up 7.9 percent from $354,000 for the same month a year ago. The median reached $380,000 last November and has been close to that ever since.

DataQuick, a subsidiary 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 median price paid for a home statewide was $229,000 last month, up 0.9 percent from $227,000 in June, and up 10.9 percent from $206,500 for July a year ago, DataQuick reported.

All Houses

All Homes	No Sold July-00	No Sold July-01	Pct. Change	Median July-00	Median July-01	Pct. Change
Alameda	1,898	1,760	-7.3%	$337K	$371K	10.1%
Contra Costa	1,831	1,757	-4.0%	$265K	$304K	14.7%
Marin	349	360	3.2%	$481K	$527K	9.6%
Napa	167	155	-7.2%	$280K	$320K	14.3%
San Francisco	452	431	-4.6%	$460K	$509K	10.7%
San Mateo	733	663	-9.5%	$474K	$513K	8.2%
Santa Clara	2,012	1,781	-11.5%	$448K	$459K	2.5%
Solano	634	744	17.4%	$199K	$239K	20.1%
Sonoma	777	790	1.7%	$274K	$316K	15.3%
Bay Area	8,848	8,459	-4.4%	$354K	$382K	7.9%

Source: DataQuick Information Systems

Media Inquiries: John Karevoll (909)867-9534

Note to editors: Starting last month, the DataQuick statistics include all homes, not just resale houses. Resale house statistics are available.

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