Home Sales Up From Last Year, Prices Down

While a rise in Bay Area home sales last month is promising, the median price paid for a home in August remains below the amount paid a year ago at that time for the 11th consecutive month, according to a real estate report released Sept. 16.

Home sales rose 9.1 percent from July, with a total of 7,513 new and resale houses and condos sold in the nine-county Bay Area, according to DataQuick, a San Diego based real estate information service.

Sales are also up 12.2 percent from August 2010, when 6,698 homes were sold. But the median price paid for homes sold last month was $370,000, which is down slightly from $374,000 in July and from $385,000 in August 2010.

The median price for homes sold last month was the lowest for the Bay Area since April, when it was $360,000, DataQuick reported. August is typically one of the stronger sales months because many families want to move before school starts, according to DataQuick's statistics, which have been recorded since 1988.

Although Bay Area home sales increased from July and year-ago figures, last month's sales fell 22.4 percent below the average August sales of 9,682.

"The sliver of positive news is that, no matter how you look at it, last month's sales beat the year-ago numbers, which were pretty lousy," DataQuick President John Walsh said in a statement.

Bay Area homes that have been foreclosed on in the past year accounted for 26.4 percent of the resale market last month. About 18.6 percent of the resale market consisted of short sales -- where the sale price of the home fell short of what was owed on the property.

According to RealtyTrac, an Irvine, Calif.-based real estate company that collects and aggregates foreclosure data, one out of 118 houses in California are in foreclosure — among the highest in the nation.

And data show there are about 100 homes in Rohnert Park currently in default, and another 210 that have already been foreclosed upon.

In the Bay Area, absentee buyers, mostly investors, bought 21.3 percent of all homes sold, according to DataQuick. August statistics reveal that foreclosure activity remains high by historical standards, but below peak levels.

Statistics also indicate that mortgage default notices, the first step to the foreclosure process, increased from July, DataQuick reported. This appears to suggest that lenders are more apt to pursue foreclosure for delinquent borrowers.

-Bay City News and Angela Hart.