June home sales and prices exceeded May’s results in the Bay Area, but still remained below the level set last year.
Buyers last month purchased 7,998 new and resale houses and condos last month in the nine-county Bay Area, according to San Diego-based DataQuick. That was up nearly 15 percent from May but down almost 5 percent from June 2010, when federal tax credits had boosted sales.
The median price climbed 1.5 percent from May to $377,750. That was still almost 8 percent lower than a year earlier.
John Walsh, DataQuick president, said the monthly jump in sales occurred throughout the state.
“June likely benefitted from a combination of factors, such as price reductions, low mortgage rates and perhaps a batch of short sale transactions from spring that took months to close,” Walsh said. “Bargain hunters, mainly investors and first-time buyers, remain very active.”
June is typically a stronger month for home sales, analyst said.
Last month, builders sold 399 newly built houses and condos in the Bay Area — down 44 percent from a year earlier. The number of such sales was the lowest since 1993.
The abnormally low sales of new homes are suppressing the median sales price, analysts said. So are the abnormally high levels of foreclosure resales, which DataQuick said are among the most aggressively priced properties on the market.
Foreclosure resales accounted for 26 percent of resold homes last month, up less than 1 percent from a year ago. Foreclosure resales peaked at 52.0 percent in February 2009.
Short sales – transactions where the sales price is less than the amount owed on the home — made up an estimated 18 Bay Area resales last month, less than 1 percent below a year ago.
— Robert Digitale