Home Sales and Median Price up – Foreclosure Resale down in Bay Area in March

On a perusal of the latest foreclosure and real estate statistics released for the month of March 2010, one cannot but come to the conclusion that the foreclosure activity continues to be high in the 9 county Bay Area. However there are encouraging points though.

Home sales in the open market is continuing the below average pace in the month of March also, but the figure rose sharply from the previous month and reached a three year high. The overall median price of properties in Bay Area is up by 30 percent to $380,000 from what it was in March 2009 – an absurdly low $290,000.

Lower-cost inland communities recorded a dip in home sales compared to same period last year, whereas in the higher-cost coastal areas, it is observed to be on the raise. The present median price is comparatively higher by 7.3 percent from February figure of $354,000.

For the Bay Area home sellers the peak was reached in median price of homes during the period June and July 2007, when it was a staggering $665,000 – spoiled later on by the foreclosure crisis plaguing the country.

The number of homes sold closing escrow in the Bay Area for March was 6,992 homes – an increase by 40.2 percent from the month of February. Compared to March 2009 figure of 6,325 properties, this is 10.5 percent increase. However one cannot but think of the peak figure – 8,317 Nos. – in March 2007.

Coming to foreclosure re-sales, properties that were foreclosed in the last 12 months in the Bay Area made up a sizeable 31.7 percent in March, out of the total resales made. Compared to March 2009 when it was 50.2 percent (the peak being 52 percent in February 2009) this is down and also a decrease compared to 36.3 percent this February.

A notable phenomenon in foreclosure re-sale homes is over the past one year, the sale of lower-cost foreclosure properties is tapering down, whereas it is going high in the medium to high priced neighborhoods.  For example, 34.6 percent of homes sold in Bay area were priced at $50,000 and above.

Posted by Amitesh Kumar on Apr 16 2010. Filed under Foreclosures, Housing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry