Bay Area home sales up to record heights in January due to distressed property purchases

Although we are used to see low sales in January across the country, California and especially Bay Area has surprised many analysts with its sales numbers reported for January.

DataQuick has posted its recent report highlighting that buyers has purchased 5,479 homes and condos in the Bay Area in the first month of the year, which is a more than 10% increase compared to a year ago. However, when compared to December, the same numbers are 27% lower.

The median price paid for a Bay Area property has fallen nearly 3% to reach $326,000, due to foreclosure sales. Distressed properties accounted for more than 50% of all sales transactions, including foreclosures and sort sales.

DataQuick has come up with numbers: distressed properties accounted for 51.9% of all sales, down from 54.5% reported a year ago.

“While it’s clear prices have edged lower in some areas recently, last month’s Bay Area median of just $326,000 is a reflection of how skewed the market has become toward distressed, lower-cost properties,” DataQuick President John Walsh said in the announcement, while cautioning that “winter numbers are based on a smaller pool of buyers and they haven’t proved very predictive” for the entire year’s figures.

Alameda County tops the list with the highest number of homes sold during the first 31 days of this year, with 1,201 – a 23.9% increase from a year ago. Buyers picked up 1,183 homes in Santa Clara County, a 4.3% increase from January 2011, and 1,115 in Contra Costa County, a 2.1% increase. San Mateo County home sales increased 17.7% from January 2011, to 438.

Posted by Istvan Fekete on Feb 17 2012. Filed under Foreclosures, Short Sales. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry