Bay Area Home Sales Down, Prices Up in December

January 24, 2002

La Jolla, CA--Bay Area home sales ended the year with slight price increases, while sales counts were off from year-ago levels.

A total of 7,725 new and resale houses and condos were sold in the nine-county region last month. That was up 16.3 percent from 6,644 for November, and down 9.3 percent from 8,515 for December a year ago, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

A decline from November to December is normal for the season. A total of 77,271 homes sold in the region in all of 2001, down 17.3 percent from 93,423 for the year before.

"I've heard people talking of the bottom falling out of the Bay Area real estate market, but that's not happening. There certainly was over-exuberance a year-and-a-half ago, but today's market is back to relative normalcy," said Mike Ela, DataQuick's president.

The median price paid for a Bay Area home was $377,000 last month. That was up 2.4 percent from $368,000 in November, and up 1.1 percent from $373,000 for December a year ago. The median peaked at $386,000 last March.

The median for all of last year was $377,000, up 7.1 percent from $352,000 for 2000. The whole-year increase varied from 2.1 percent for Santa Clara County to 19.5 percent for Napa County.

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.

During the last five years, from December 1996 to December 2001, home prices statewide increased 53.5 percent from $155,000 to $238,000. The Bay Area median increased 66.1 percent from $227,000 to last month's $377,000.

All Homes	No Sold Dec-00	No Sold Dec-01	Pct. Chg	Median Dec-00	Median Dec-01	Pct. Chg
Alameda	1,822	1,589	-12.8%	$363K	$366K	0.8%
Contra Costa	1,900	1,571	-17.3%	$284K	$308K	8.5%
Marin	260	286	10.0%	$506K	$518K	2.4%
Napa	146	213	45.9%	$321K	$331K	3.1%
San Francisco	391	431	10.2%	$538K	$500K	-7.1%
San Mateo	672	677	0.7%	$493K	$501K	1.6%
Santa Clara	1,915	1,624	-15.2%	$465K	$435K	-6.5%
Solano	677	704	4.0%	$210K	$242K	15.2%
Sonoma	727	630	-13.3%	$306K	$310K	1.3%
Bay Area	8,515	7,725	-9.3%	$373K	$377K	1.1%

Source: DataQuick Information Systems, www.DQNews.com

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