« TERRORIST VERDICT REACHED - SEE STORY | Main | Market Update »
October 22, 2007
Home sales plummet 40% in Bay Area
By Sue McAllister - Mercury News - Article Launched: 10/19/2007 01:30:18 AM PDT
Wary buyers and a shaky mortgage market slammed the brakes on Bay Area home sales in September, which reached their lowest level of any September in the past two decades.
Sales have picked up a bit this month, but it's still a buyer's market and will remain so for some time, experts say.
Among all types of Bay Area homes - new and resale houses as well as condos - just 5,014 properties changed hands last month, according to DataQuick Information Systems. That was a 40 percent drop from a year ago, and made it the slowest September in the company's records, which go back to 1988.
MORE....
Housing sinks deeper
Homes sales were down 31.3 percent in September compared with August as tightness in the loan market kicked in
By Barbara E. Hernandez - STAFF WRITER
Article Launched: 10/19/2007 03:02:42 AM PDT
Two homes for sale on the 800 block of Chianti Way in Oakley, Calif., on Thursday, October 18,...«1» Bay Area home sales sank to their lowest point in about 20 years in September and homes bought with mortgages of more than $417,000 fell by almost 50 percent, DataQuick Information Systems reported Thursday. Homes purchased with jumbo mortgages, or those of more than $417,000, dropped from 3,762 in August to 1,935 last month, a decline of 48.6 percent.
"There's just not that much jumbo money out there right now," said Andrew LePage, an analyst with DataQuick.
A total of 5,014 new and resale houses and condos were sold in the nine-county Bay Area in September. That was down 31.3 percent from 7,299 in August, and down 40.1 percent from 8,374 for September a year ago.
Posted by Post Scripts at October 22, 2007 10:21 AM