The Bay Area continues to see homes fly off the market even amid rapidly rising home prices, according to new data released by CoreLogic.
The data shows a total of 4,929 new and existing homes sold in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, Santa Clara, San Francisco, San Mateo, Solano and Sonoma counties in February. This is up 9.5% from January’s 4,503 sales in January and up 1.9% from 4,835 sales in February 2017.
Since 1988, the average change in sales between January and February was just 2.7%.
Sales of newly built homes, detached homes and condos combined, was 27.3% below average for the month of February and resales were 17.5% below the month’s average.
“Bay Area home sales gained momentum in February, rising on a year-over-year basis for the first time in four months,” CoreLogic Analyst Andrew LePage said. “Although last month’s sales were well below average for a February they were the second-highest for that month in the last five years.”
“A 12.6% annual increase in $500,000-plus transactions last month compensated for an 18.3% year-over-year drop in deals below $500,000,” LePage said. “The number of homes that sold for $1 million or more this February rose about 33% year over year, to a record high level – 1,558 sales – for a February.”
The median price for all homes sold in the San Francisco Bay Area increased 5.6% from $710,000 in January to $750,000 in February. The area’s median home price increased 12.8% over the past six months, and has now risen for 71 consecutive months on an annual basis.
“The median price paid for a Bay Area home has been rising on a year-over-year basis every month for just under six years,” LePage said. “The severe imbalance between the region’s housing supply and demand suggests continued upward pressure on prices.”
“However, if mortgage rates continue to climb higher some of that pressure would be relieved as more buyers are priced out of the market,” he said. “Last month one of the region’s nine counties – Santa Clara – logged a record median sale price for all homes combined, while the median paid for resale detached houses hit record levels in Santa Clara, San Francisco and San Mateo counties.”
Home sales of $500,000 or more accounted for 73.5% of all sales in February, up from 71.7% in January and from 66.9% in February 2017.
