SF Bay Area Home Sales in Freefall to 20-year low

[El Pinko]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/14/BU8RV2K0E.DTL


Bay Area home sales fall to 20-year-low
James Temple, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, February 14, 2008

(02-14) 10:35 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- Bay Area home sales nosedived to a 20-year low and median prices dropped nearly 10 percent last month, as a lack of credit and excess of uncertainty continued to keep buyers out of the market.
A total of 3,586 new and resale houses and condos traded hands in the nine-county Bay Area in January, down 41.9 percent from a year ago and 29.2 percent from December, according to DataQuick Information Systems. It's the first time regional sales have dipped below 4,000 in the 20 years that the La Jolla research firm has tracked the region and the 36th straight month of declines. Sales generally spring back in January after a holiday lull in December, often the slowest month of the year.
The median price paid for all Bay Area home types was $550,000 last month, down 8.5 percent from a year ago. San Francisco sales declined 27.1 percent to 293, as the median price fell 0.8 percent from a year ago, to $744,000.



This is probably much worse than a 20 year low, because Dataquick has only been tracking sales for 20 years - the records don't go back any further than that...