Bay Area Housing Market Sees Slow Start For 2011

Bay Area home sales have dropped since December, but still were higher in early 2011 than they were during the same period in 2010, a real-estate information service said.

Because sales are normally slow this time of year, January and February are not predictive of trends, according to a report by DataQuick.

Home sales rose in early 2011 compared with the same time last year, with 4,966 sold in the Bay Area, DataQuick noted.

 Napa County had the highest increase, rising 35.6 percent over last year.

Home sales in Alameda County were up by 3.5 percent in January in comparison with the same period last year. According to the DataQuick report, median home prices in Alameda County were $341,000 in January 2010 and fell to $308,181 this January.  

DataQuick shows that median home prices in Livermore increased slightly to $387,000 in December 2010 from $385,000 during the same period in 2009.

Solano County saw the biggest decrease with a drop of 3 percent from last year, according to DataQuick. New home sales dropped to their lowest level in more than 20 years with 253 sales, DataQuick officials said.

"Builders just can't build homes that can compete in price with the bargains out there, especially foreclosure resales," DataQuick President John Walsh said in a statement.

The median price for new and resale houses and condos in the Bay Area dropped to $338,000 this January compared with $350,000 in January 2010, DataQuick reported.

Sales of higher-cost homes still appear to be suffering from the credit crisis, which made adjustable-rate mortgages and "jumbo" loans more difficult to obtain, the report said.

Jumbo loans, which accounted for nearly 60 percent of the Bay Area purchase loan market before the credit crunch more than three years ago, were used in only 27.1 percent of January's purchasing lending, the report said.

Government-insured Federal Housing Administration loans made up 25 percent of all home purchase mortgages in January.

Monthly mortgage payments are down from last month and last year, according to DataQuick. The typical mortgage for January was $1,412 compared with $1,558 in December and $1,525 in January 2010.

Foreclosure activity remains high but is below peak levels reached over the last two years, the report said.

Bay City News Service