by Calculated Risk on 7/19/2006 02:40:00 PM

DataQuick reports: Bay Area home sales continue to drop, prices reach new peak

Home sales in the Bay Area continued to slow last month as prices reached new highs. Prices increased at their slowest pace in more than three years ...

Median Home Price	June-04	June-05	June-06	Pct.Chg
Alameda	$489K	$581K	$593K	2.1%
Contra Costa	$458K	$558K	$592K	6.1%
Marin	$690K	$815K	$829K	1.7%
Napa	$501K	$608K	$638K	4.9%
San Francisco	$653K	$760K	$778K	2.4%
San Mateo	$646K	$752K	$759K	0.9%
Santa Clara	$549K	$645K	$684K	6.0%
Solano	$358K	$449K	$482K	7.3%
Sonoma	$449K	$557K	$587K	5.4%
TOTAL Bay Area	$516K	$610K	$644K	5.6%

I added the June 2004 median prices to give a two year perspective on prices.

"The market is definitely slowing but can only be considered "slow" when compared to the hot market of 2004 and 2005. In reality, today's market is pretty normal and balanced, right between the grim times of 1993 to 1995 and the frenzies of 1999 and 2004-2005. The Bay Area's market is reaching the end of a real estate cycle, it looks like prices could flatten out sometime this fall. What happens after that is anyone's guess," said Marshall Prentice, DataQuick president.

Homes Sold	June-04	June-05	June-06	Pct.Chg
Alameda	2,922	2,730	1,991	-27.1%
Contra Costa	2,772	2,640	1,900	-28.0%
Marin	544	454	435	-4.2%
Napa	233	209	189	-9.6%
San Francisco	847	723	652	-9.8%
San Mateo	1,122	917	765	-16.6%
Santa Clara	3,543	3,220	2,562	-20.4%
Solano	1,055	1,147	732	-36.2%
Sonoma	1,066	974	666	-31.6%
TOTAL Bay Area	14,104	13,014	9,892	-24.0%

Sales have been falling for two years in the Bay Area. Since DataQuick's President says what happens next is "anyone's guess" - I'll guess we will see falling prices later this year.