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Friday, March 20, 2015

DataQuick: California Bay Area February Home Sales Decline

by Calculated Risk on 3/20/2015 09:06:00 AM

From DataQuick: Bay Area February Home Sales Decline; Smaller Gain for Median Sale Price

The number of homes sold was slightly lower than in January and was the lowest for the month of February in seven years. ... A total of 4,376 new and existing houses and condos sold in the nine-county Bay Area in February 2015. That was down 1.1 percent month over month from 4,423 sales in January 2015 and down 10.9 percent year over year from 4,911 sales in February 2014, according to CoreLogic DataQuick data.
...
“February is always a bit odd from a numbers standpoint. March should provide a better view of emerging trends this year,” said Andrew LePage, CoreLogic DataQuick data analyst. “That said, it is easy to see that supply is still constrained."
...
Foreclosure resales accounted for 4.5 percent of all resales in February, up from a revised 4.4 percent in January 2015 and down from 5.0 percent in February 2014. Foreclosure resales in the Bay Area peaked at 52.0 percent in February 2009, while the monthly average over the past 17 years is about 10 percent. Foreclosure resales are purchased homes that have been previously foreclosed upon in the prior 12 months.

Short sales accounted for an estimated 4.8 percent of Bay Area resales in February, down from a revised 5.2 percent in January 2015 and down from 6.3 percent in February 2014. Short sales are transactions in which the sale price fell short of what was owed on the property.
emphasis added