Bay Area Home Sales Surge, Prices Flat in February

March 21, 2002

La Jolla, CA--Home sales in the Bay Area rose sharply last month as buyers took advantage of bottomed-out prices and reasonable mortgage interest rates.

A total of 7,298 new and resale houses and condos were sold in the nine-county region last month. That was up 4.4 percent from 6,990 for January, and up 21.1 percent from 6,024 for February a year ago, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

An increase from January to February is unusual for the season. Last month's year-over-year increase was the second in a row, the rise in January ended a sixteen-month decline.

"There was a perception for much of last year that Bay Area home prices were in steep decline and many buyers don't want to buy something that's dropping in value. While prices did edge down for a while, they leveled off by late summer," said Mike Ela, DataQuick's president.

The median price paid for a Bay Area home was $373,000 last month. That was up 0.5 percent from $371,000 in January, and down 2.1 percent from $381,000 for February a year ago. The median peaked at $386,000 in March 2001. The median since then has varied between $366,000 and $382,000.

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 typical monthly mortgage payment that Bay Area buyers committed themselves to paying was $1,880 in February. A year ago it was $1,994. The all-time peak was May 2000 at $2,124, DataQuick reported.

All Homes	No Sold Feb-01	No Sold Feb-02	Pct. Chg	Median Feb-01	Median Feb-02	Pct. Chg
Alameda	1,266	1,588	25.4%	$367K	$357K	-2.7%
Contra Costa	1,297	1,356	4.5%	$282K	$297K	5.3%
Marin	226	254	12.4%	$562K	$537K	-4.4%
Napa	118	206	74.6%	$286K	$324K	13.3%
San Francisco	274	375	36.9%	$515K	$504K	-2.1%
San Mateo	434	598	37.8%	$568K	$487K	-14.3%
Santa Clara	1,334	1,705	27.8%	$469K	$436K	-7.0%
Solano	551	641	16.3%	$230K	$243K	5.7%
Sonoma	533	575	7.9%	$308K	$302K	-1.9%
Bay Area	6,024	7,298	21.1%	$381K	$373K	-2.1%

Source: DataQuick Information Systems, www.DQNews.com

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