Investors Lead San Francisco Home Sales

SAN FRANCISCO (DQNews) -- Bay Area home sales held at a poky pace in February as the median sale price fell below the year-ago level for the fifth consecutive month. With many would-be buyers still reluctant to enter the market, the share of homes sold to investors and others paying cash rose to unusually high levels, a real estate information service reported.

A total of 4,991 new and resale houses and condos sold in the nine-county Bay Area last month. That was up 0.5% from 4,966 in January but down 0.9% from 5,035 in February 2010, according to DataQuick Information Systems. The San Diego firm tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records.

A small increase in sales between January and February is normal for the season, with that gain averaging 2.7% since 1988, when DataQuick's statistics begin. Last month's sales were 20.9% below the February average of 6,307 transactions.

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Just 243 newly built homes sold in the Bay Area in February, the least for any month in DataQuick's statistics. The previous low was 253 in January this year. One of the main problems builders face is that they can't compete with prices on resale homes, especially distressed properties.

Distressed sales - the combination of sales of foreclosed homes and "short sales" - accounted for just over half of the Bay Area's resale market last month.

Foreclosure resales - homes that had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months - made up 32.6% of the Bay Area's resale market in February. That was down from 35.0% in January and 36.3% a year ago. Foreclosure resales peaked at 52.0% in February 2009. The monthly average for foreclosure resales over the past 15 years is about 9%.

Short sales - transactions where the sale price fell short of what was owed on the property - made up an estimated 20.3% of Bay Area resales last month, a peak for the current real estate cycle. Last month's short sale figure was up from an estimated 19.7% in January, 17.8% a year earlier, and 12.6% two years ago.