Silicon Valley real estate turnaround? Prices, sales up in October

By Sue McAllister
The Mercury News

For the first time in nearly two years, the median price of Santa Clara County houses rose compared with a year earlier, reflecting a shift away from sales of lower-priced, post-foreclosure properties, according to a report released this morning.

The median price of the Santa Clara County houses that changed hands last month increased to $550,000, up 6.7 percent from a year earlier, according to MDA DataQuick.

More homes of all types sold last month in the county than in September, and than in October 2008.

Two other counties —Alameda and San Francisco — and the nine-county Bay Area as a whole saw year-over-year increases in the median prices of the previously owned, single-family homes sold.

In Alameda County, the median house price last month was $400,000, up 3.8 percent from a year earlier. San Francisco's median figure rose 2.2 percent to $717,750. The Bay Area as a whole had a median house price of $400,000, up 6.7 percent from October 2008.

"The regional price statistics mainly reflect the fading of the foreclosures and the uptick in high-end activity in recent months," John Walsh, MDA DataQuick president, said in a statement. "Down at the neighborhood level, different things are happening depending on location, but the big picture is that prices in many areas appear to be bouncing along bottom. Whether that bottom is permanent is the subject of endless debate right now."

DataQuick said that last month, previously foreclosed properties in the region made up 32 percent of all resale transactions, down from 44 percent in October 2008. Sales of homes priced at more than $500,000 made up 36 percent of all sales, up from 35 percent a year earlier.

Sales in some Bay Area counties compared favorably with last year as well. In Santa Clara County, for example, 28 percent more houses changed hands in October, and 50 percent more condominiums.

For the Bay Area as a whole, 7,933 homes of all types sold — houses and condos, both new and used. That was up a fraction from 7,879 in September, and up 4.2 percent from October 2008. An average October posts about 8,800 sales of all property types, based on DataQuick stats going back to 1988.