By Frank Michael Russell, San Jose Mercury News
Posted: 11/18/2010 09:47:09 AM PST
Updated: 11/18/2010 12:33:50 PM PST
Home sales in Silicon Valley plunged in October from a year earlier, but the median price for a resale house in Santa Clara County was up 2.3 percent to $562,500, MDA DataQuick reported this morning.
The number of single-family homes that changed hands in October was down 27.3 percent to 1,303, the San Diego real estate research firm reported in an e-mail. The drop in Santa Clara County reflected the market throughout the Bay Area, where sales for an October were at their second-slowest pace in more than two decades.
"Part of what we're seeing is the hangover effect from the expired homebuyer tax credits, which spurred many to buy in the first half of the year. But that effect is fading," DataQuick President John Walsh said in the news release.
"Now the real hurdles to more normal sales levels are the lack of meaningful job growth and the concerns many potential buyers have about job security and the overall economy. It's why ultralow mortgage rates, alone, haven't turned things around," Walsh said.
Resale condo sales were down 25.9 percent from a year earlier in Santa Clara County, and the median price dropped 4.5 percent to $320,000.
For all homes -- new and resale, houses and condos -- sales in the valley dropped 29.3 percent. The median price was up 0.5 percent to $502,500.
For all transactions throughout the Bay Area, sales were down 22.8 percent, and the median price dropped 1.8 percent to $383,000.
