Bay Area Home Sales are UP!

       At least 3 counties had their best January in 5 years or more

For the Bay Area as a whole, sales rose 6.8%.

The President of the Santa Clara County Association of REALTORS noted that “We have multiple offers on almost every sale in the lower part of the market,” said Barbara Lymberis. “If people are thinking we haven’t hit bottom, they’re wrong.”

A first time homebuyer inSan Josewas quoted to say, “Every day something new comes on the market; we go to make an offer and there’s already other people making offers,” she said. “If we’re not on it within an hour, there’s already been people making offers on it.”

Here are the median single family home prices for each county

Santa Clara        $468,500

San Mateo          $527,500

Alameda             $325,000

Contra Costa      $245,000

BAY AREA:        $350,000

According to DataQuick, distressed sales account for about 50% of all sales activity across the 10 county bay area region.

Overall, Bay Area prices were between flat to down 2-3% when compared to January 2011.

In Santa Cruz County, according to the MLS 106 homes sold with an average price of $455,491 during January 2012, compared to 94 sales in January 2011 with an average price of $502,331.      I prefer to look at quarterly price trends, versus monthly statistics, just because the differences month to month can be so erratic.

Click here if you’d like an estimate of your home value.

Sources: MLSListings.com

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