Home sales in San Francisco Bay area jump 29%

Bay Area home sales fell 15% in April from a year earlier and prices declined as lenders made it harder to obtain mortgages, cutting the number of potential buyers.

A total of 6,310 new and existing homes and condominiums sold in San Francisco, Marin, San Mateo, Santa Clara and five other counties last month, the lowest for an April since 1995, according to DataQuick Information Systems. The median price dropped 21% to $518,000.

Reduced availability of mortgages over $417,000, known as jumbo loans, is keeping sales and prices lower. The Bay Area median would have been about $578,000 if jumbo loans were more obtainable, DataQuick said. Home purchases made with jumbos accounted for 29% of sales last month, less than half of the number a year earlier.

“Jumbos have been critical to the Bay Area market,” said Andrew LePage, a DataQuick analyst. “To the extent the loan spigot is opening up, it’s below the jumbo level.”

Sales jumped 29% from March, the biggest advance from March to April since DataQuick began statistics in 1988, primarily because of foreclosure sales in counties furthest from San Francisco, LePage said.

The median home price fell in all nine Bay Area counties, led by a 34% drop to $395,000 in Contra Costa. The Bay Area peak was $665,000, reached last June and July.