Recent existing single-family home sales activity suggests more buyers are seeking affordability and purchasing more inland properties in the Bay Area and Southern California.
In March, year-over-year home sales activity was down in seven of the nine counties that comprise the Bay Area, with only Solano and Sonoma counties seeing an uptick in transactions, according to the California Association of Realtors.
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No surprise, Solano County is the Bay Area’s most affordable region, with a median sales price of $376,420 as of this March. Last month the county saw a 10.8 percent year-over-year boost in sales, with prices up 9.1 percent compared to last March.
Sales activity in Sonoma County was up 5 percent year-over-year last month, with the market experiencing a noticeable 14.7 percent increase in its median sales price ($596,090) during the same period. This sales price makes Sonoma the third most affordable county in the Bay Area.
To the south, Los Angeles County’s neighbor to the east San Bernardino County experienced a more than 12 percent year-over-year rise in sales activity last month. At the same time the county’s median sales price has risen by 10.1 percent, reaching $237,350 in March.
While sales activity is on the rise in San Bernardino, transaction volume was relatively unchanged in Los Angeles County last month, down 0.4 percent. The county’s median sales price sat at $440,460 entering April.
Transactions dip in seven Bay Area counties
In all four of the Bay Area’s most expensive counties, sales activity was down by double digits last month.
In San Francisco County, where the median sales price sits at $1.36 million, sales activity dipped 17 percent on a year-over-year basis in March. San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, which have the second and third highest prices per square foot in the Bay, experienced 13.5 percent and 12.4 percent drops in activity, respectively.
Marin County, with a median sales price of $1.148 million, witnessed the largest double-digit drop in sales activity at 30.1 percent.
The Bay Area’s mid-counties, in terms of affordability, also experienced declines in sales activity, but at a slightly lower clip than the most expensive regions.
Napa County saw a 10.5 percent dip in sales activity with Alameda and Contra Costa counties both experiencing slowdowns of nearly 8 percent. The median sales prices of these three counties range from roughly $572,000 to $762,000.
Last month 415,220 existing single-family homes sold in California, a 5.7 percent year-over-year bump.
March’s statewide median sales prices was also up, by 4 percent year-over-year to $483,280.
