Home sales fall in Bay Area

San Francisco Bay Area home prices dropped to an 18-month low in January as the number of houses and condominium units that changed hands fell for the 24th month in a row, data released Thursday showed.

The median price paid for a home in San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa and six other Northern California counties in January was $601,000, a 2.8% drop from December’s median and a 1.5% decline from a year earlier, La Jolla-based research firm DataQuick Information Systems said.

January’s median was the lowest since May 2005, when it was $597,000. The median is the price at which half of all homes sold for more, half for less.

A total of 6,168 new and existing single-family homes and condo units were sold in the Bay Area last month, down 26% from December and down 4.1% from a year earlier, DataQuick said.