Bay Area Home Sales Slowing

  NEWS

Sept. 24 - KGO (KGO) -- Bay Area homes sales are slowing down. The latest real estate trends show sales down by nearly 25 percent from August of last year.

About 9,000 homes and condominiums sold in the Bay Area last month, that's the lowest number since 1997. It is also a significant drop off from peak sales of 12,500 in 2003. Even with the volume of home sales dropping prices are holding steady.

In eight of the nine Bay Area counties, prices haven't fluctuated more than a point or two in the last year. San Mateo is the only county where home prices really took a hit last month, dropping nearly seven percent.

Inventories of unsold homes are very high right now, with buyers taking their time and sellers finding it takes weeks to move a home, not days.

Dan Newland, Alameda Home Seller: "Well it certainly is a different market than it was even three months ago."

Home sellers and realtors tell us that to move a home in this market you have to be realistic about price and make sure that the home is move-in ready.

Gone are the days where you could put anything on the market and expect it to have multiple offers over asking. That said, with the average home price in the bay area hovering around $700,000, the term "buyers market" is relative.

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