While Bay Area home sales ticked up 7.1 percent from June to July, they’re down 9 percent year-over-year and running 9 percent below average, according to DataQuick. And while recorded home sales in San Francisco ticked up 2.4 percent from June to July, sales are down 24 percent year-over-year, the sharpest decline in over a year.
Having hit a record $1,000,000 in June, the median price paid for a property in San Francisco slipped to $991,000 in July but remains 18 percent higher on a year-over-year and 76 percent above than the recent low-water mark of $562,000 recorded in January of 2009.
The median sale price for a home in the Bay Area slipped a nominal 0.2 percent to $617,000 in July but remains 9.8 percent higher, year-over-year, and 113 percent higher than the low-water mark of $290,000 recorded in March of 2009. The Bay Area median home price peaked at $665,000 in July of 2007,
As always, keep in mind that while movements in the median sale price are a great measure of what’s in demand and selling, they’re not a great measure of actual appreciation.
At the extremes around the Bay Area in July, Solano was the only county to record a year-over-year increase in sales volume, up 4 percent with a median sales price of $321,500, up 26 percent year-over-year and the greatest increase across the Bay. Napa recorded the sharpest drop in sales last month, down 25 percent year-over-year with a median sales price of $494,500, 16 percent higher, year-over-year.
Keep in mind that DataQuick reports recorded sales which not only includes activity in new developments, but contracts that were signed (“sold”) months prior but are just now closing escrow (or being recorded) and any properties that were sold “off market.”