Bay Area home sales fall 41%

Home sales in the San Francisco Bay Area dropped 41% to the lowest level for a March in more than two decades as stricter mortgage standards reduced the number of potential buyers and prices fell, DataQuick Information Systems Inc. reported.

The number of houses and condominiums sold in San Francisco, Santa Clara, Marin and six other counties fell to 4,898, the seventh consecutive month that sales reached a record low, La Jolla-based DataQuick said today. The median price decreased 16.1% from a year earlier to $536,000.

Sales are declining as lenders require higher down payments and credit scores and buyers have difficulty obtaining mortgages above $417,000, known as jumbo loans. The Bay Area median price would have been closer to $597,000 last month if jumbo availability had “remained stable,” DataQuick said.

“It still appears that a lot of Bay Area activity is just on hold, waiting for the mortgage markets to open back up,” said Marshall Prentice, DataQuick’s president.

Home purchases made with jumbo loans accounted for 29.8% of sales in March, down from 62.2% a year earlier, said DataQuick.