SF Bay Area Home Sales in Freefall to 20-year low

[El Pinko]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/14/BU8RV2K0E.DTL


Bay Area home sales fall to 20-year-low
James Temple, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, February 14, 2008

(02-14) 10:35 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- Bay Area home sales nosedived to a 20-year low and median prices dropped nearly 10 percent last month, as a lack of credit and excess of uncertainty continued to keep buyers out of the market.
A total of 3,586 new and resale houses and condos traded hands in the nine-county Bay Area in January, down 41.9 percent from a year ago and 29.2 percent from December, according to DataQuick Information Systems. It's the first time regional sales have dipped below 4,000 in the 20 years that the La Jolla research firm has tracked the region and the 36th straight month of declines. Sales generally spring back in January after a holiday lull in December, often the slowest month of the year.
The median price paid for all Bay Area home types was $550,000 last month, down 8.5 percent from a year ago. San Francisco sales declined 27.1 percent to 293, as the median price fell 0.8 percent from a year ago, to $744,000.



This is probably much worse than a 20 year low, because Dataquick has only been tracking sales for 20 years - the records don't go back any further than that...

[AlCzervik]

1. the bay area will bounce back much quicker.

[Jed Dilligan]

2. Good. Maybe the Bay's soul will grow back now.

[taught_me_patience]

3. You're really on top of this CA housing collapse

good work! I live in one of the most overpriced neighborhoods in all of Los Angeles (westside culver city) and just waiting for the collapse to happen here. Two years ago, I predicted a "tidal wave" of foreclosures and it looks like we're starting to get it.

[AlCzervik]

5. but it's still a great place to live!

i was born and raised as a masshole, i loved to Texas when i was 30 and thankfully i got to move to California a short 3 years later and i can't picture a better state to live in.

[El Pinko]

6. I loved living in San Francisco, but absolutely could not justify the cost of living there

I don't think it even makes sense to live in most of California with an income under 6 figures anymore.


If you got in when there were still 200K homes, you're probably doing all right, but the prices are beyond insane right now.

[AlCzervik]

8. For once in our lives we got lucky, when we sole our home in Texas we made $35,000

in profit which i guess doesn't happen too often, i didn't care if i lost money, i just wanted to get the fuck out and we bought here in norcal when prices were still affordable, i paid $209,000 for my house in 2000, chucked a pool in the backyard and thats it, no crazy mortgage just a boring old 15 year fixed with a 25% down payment. Growing up thats how it went, you don't even look at a house unless you have at least 20% to put down.

[natrat]

4. it's vastly different between say solano county and marin and sf county

rich neighborhoods barely decline ---bayview in sf off a ton but most nice neighborhoods have been up, some almost 30%

[slackmaster]

7. County property tax revenues will follow prices down as people file for reassessment

This will be a painful but totally necessary process. It has to happen for the market to return to something resembling normal.