Sonoma County Home Sales, Median Prices Continue Upsurge in May

Article written by Jim Welte and Lauren Gibbs

The Sonoma County real estate market continued its upward surge in May, with both the number of homes sold and the median home price increasing, compared to the same period in 2012, according to a real estate information service.

Sonoma County's median home price in May was $390,000, up nearly 30 percent from $300,250 in May 2012, according to San Diego-based DataQuick. 

Those trends bore out across the nine-county Bay Area, where the median price rose to $519,000 in May, up nearly 30 percent from $400,000 in May 2012 and up nearly 2 percent from $510,000 in April, DataQuick reported. The median home price rose by at least 24 percent in all nine Bay Area counties, according to DataQuick, with Contra Costa County recording the highest jump at 39 percent.

(Note: The chart above reflects median home price for all homes – both detached single-family homes and condos/townhouses – across the nine-county Bay Area.)

DataQuick officials attributed the marked rise in home prices to both an overall increase in home values and a shift in the types of homes that were sold, as the number of foreclosure resales and “short sales” continued to decrease.

“In a year or two, we’ll probably see in hindsight that a bounce off the bottom was faster and easier than later incremental gains in a more balanced market," DataQuick President John Walsh said in a statement. "As it is, today’s market is still re-establishing equilibrium. Among potential buyers, there is clearly a sense that favorable factors are lined up right now in a way they may not be in a year, or three or five years.”

The Bay Area's median home price peaked at $665,000 in June and July 2007, then dropped as low as $290,000 in March 2009 – a decline of $375,000, or 56.4 percent, DataQuick reported. In May 2013, the median was still 22 percent below the peak but it had made up about 61 percent of its peak-to-trough loss.

Investors and all-cash buyers continued to hold a major presence in the Bay Area market in May, as absentee buyers – mostly investors – purchased 25 percent of all Bay Area homes. That was up from 24 percent in April and 24.4 percent a year ago. Buyers who appear to have paid all cash – meaning no sign of a corresponding purchase loan was found in the public record – accounted for 27.6 percent of sales in May.