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(San Francisco) Home prices top $610,000

Home prices top $610,000
Supply increase causes sales slip
By Staff and wire reports
Published: Tuesday, July 19, 2005 9:53 PM PDT

The median price paid for a Bay Area home was $610,000 in June, a new record. That was up 2.5 percent from $595,000 in May, and up 18.2 percent from $516,000 for June a year ago, according to DataQuick Information Systems, a real estate information service.

The median price — half of homes sell for more, half for less — passed through the $500,000 range in 13 months. It was in the $400,000 range for 25 months before that.

The number of homes sold declined slightly. A total of 13,014 new and resale houses and condos were sold in the nine-county region last month. That was up 2.5 percent from 11,308 for May, and down 7.7 percent from 14,104 for June last year, DataQuick reported.

The year-ago June sales count was the highest in DataQuick's statistics, which go back to 1988. This June's was the second-highest.

"Robust demand, unchanging mortgage interest rates and a few more homes on the market are the likely factors behind the strong June numbers. We expect the rest of the summer to be like this," said Marshall Prentice, DataQuick president.

Home sales were down 18.3 percent in San Mateo County from June 2004 to June 2005, down 16.5 percent in Marin County, down 14.6 percent in San Francisco County, down 10.3 percent in Napa County and down 9.1 percent in Santa Clara County. June 2005 sales were higher than June 2004 sales in just one Bay Area County: Solano County, which saw sales rise 8.7 percent, DataQuick reported.

Bay Area home-price appreciation was hottest in Solano County, where the median price rose 25.4 percent — from $358,000 to $449,000 — from June 2004 to June 2005. Median prices appreciated 24.1 percent in Sonoma County in that time, 21.8 percent in Contra Costa County, 21.4 percent in Napa County, and 18.8 percent in Alameda County. San Francisco and San Mateo, meanwhile, had the slowest appreciation rates in that time, at 16.4 percent. Median prices in June 2005 were highest in Marin County, at $815,000.

The typical monthly mortgage payment that Bay Area buyers committed themselves to paying was $2,651 in June, up slightly from $2,646 in June. A year ago it was $2,450. Indicators of market distress are still largely absent, DataQuick reported: Foreclosure rates are low, down-payment sizes are stable and there have been no significant shifts in market mix.

DataQuick, a unit of MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, Vancouver, monitors real estate activity nationwide.


LINK: http://www.sfexaminer.com/articles/2005/07/20/business/20050720_bu01_home.txt