Million dollar house sales in the Bay Area
In a sign that some Bay Area residents still aren’t comfortable shelling out the big bucks, sales of homes priced at $1 million or more fell by 27% in the region last year, outpacing the 24% decline in such sales statewide, according to MDA DataQuick. The Bay Area saw 7,261 sales of million-dollar-plus homes in 2009, down from 10,006 in 2008 and 18,926 in 2005. Santa Clara County saw the most, with 2,378 sales of such homes, while Solano County had the fewest, with 20. Reluctant buyers and a tight mortgage market contributed to the decline, DataQuick said. Meanwhile, Bay Area home sales at all price levels rose 16% last year from 2008, while sales statewide climbed 17%. One in 25 California home sales crossed the $1 million mark in 2009, compared with one in nine in 2006, according to DataQuick.
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Yipes. That certainly doesn’t look very good to an untrained eye. But real estate professionals, they know that this is normal – after all, real estate is cyclical.
2009 was the bottom out year 2010 is when the chart is going to come back up. Haven’t you seen all those billboards on 101 plugging Zynga? The startup community is back… and with a vengeance! Jobs are starting to flow like water from the sierra nevadas.
It’s only a matter of time before million dollar homes become the norm again. You just wait.




