Bay Area home sales fall, prices hit record

The number of houses and condominiums sold in the San Francisco Bay Area dropped 18% last month to the lowest level in 12 years as prices in the region rose to a record, DataQuick Information Systems said Wednesday.

A total of 7,447 new and existing single-family homes and condominium units were sold in Santa Clara, Contra Costa, Alameda and six other Northern California counties last month, down from 9,129 in April 2006, La Jolla-based DataQuick said. Last month’s sales count was the lowest for an April since 1995, when 5,636 homes changed owners.

The drop in sales in the Bay Area is the result of fewer low-cost homes selling as some first-time home buyers waited for a decline in prices and others found it harder to get loans after the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage industry, DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage said. Sub-prime loans are made to borrowers with poor or limited credit histories, and often are used by first-time home buyers.

“A lot of first-time buyers are more likely than ever to wait and see what happens next,” LePage said. “We’re not blaming it all on the sub-prime situation and whatever lender tightening is going on out there. That’s part of it.”

The median price paid for a Bay Area home last month rose to a record $659,000, up 3.8% from a year earlier. The prior peak was in June 2006, when the median was $648,000. The median price has increased in each of the last three months, DataQuick said.