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New Report Shows Mixed Picture for Bay Area Housing Market

A new report by CoreLogic, the real estate information firm, painted a mixed picture of the Bay Area’s housing market last month.

On one hand, home sales rose sharply in March from February, but, on the other hand, sales dipped from a year ago for only the second year-over-year decline in the past 12 months. And although the median sale price rose both on a monthly and yearly basis, March saw the smallest annual price gain in four years.

A total of 6,754 new and resale houses and condos sold in the nine county Bay Area region in March, up 37 percent from February but down 2.9 percent from March 2015. The March sales totals were the second lowest for the month of March (behind March 2014) since 2009.

“Last month the housing market experienced a normal, seasonal spike from February in the number of recorded transactions, which reflects more buyers and sellers entering the market as the holidays and winter faded,” said Andrew LePage, research analyst with CoreLogic. “However, sales fell slightly year over year—for only the second time in the past year—and they were about 21 percent below the average March sales tally since the late 1980s.”

LePage said the data “suggests that despite the improved economy and still-low mortgage rates, many would-be buyers continue to face hurdles such as waning affordability, moderately tight credit and a relatively slim inventory of homes for sale in many communities.”

Meanwhile, the median price paid for all homes sold in the Bay Area in March 2016 was $643,250, up 4.6 percent month over month from $615,000 in February and up 1.4 percent year over year from $634,500 in March 2015. The median sale price has risen year over year for 48 consecutive months, but the 1.4 percent year-over-year gain in March 2016 was the smallest for any month since the median sale price began to rise on a year-over-year basis four years ago, CoreLogic reported.

“Sky-high home prices in the Bay Area’s coastal areas continue to push buyers inland,” said LePage. “There has been a meaningful increase in the share of homes selling in Solano, Contra Costa, Napa and Sonoma counties, which have the region’s lowest median sale prices.”

LePage noted that March sales in those four counties rose 7.3 percent year over year, while the combined sales in the San Francisco Bay Area’s four most expensive counties—San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Mateo and Marin—fell almost 9 percent.

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