Bay Area year-over-year median home price rises 20% in February

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The median price paid for a Bay Area home jumped 20% in February as fewer foreclosures were on the market, the San Diego research firm MDA DataQuick said Thursday. Sales fell for the second month in a row.

Potential buyers had trouble securing financing, were concerned about job security or had a difficult time competing for a home as inventory tightened, DataQuick said.

“The market remains fundamentally off kilter,” John Walsh, DataQuick’s president, said in a statement. “There’s still relatively little lending going on in the upper price ranges, and little adjustable-rate financing, which had been vital to the Bay Area.”

Investor activity and cash deals remained high, as did the proportion of sales that involved properties that were foreclosed on, Walsh said.

“Despite the widening stability seen in the housing market in recent months, the outlook remains murky.”

The median price paid for a Bay Area home in February was $354,000, up considerably from $295,000 in February 2009, when foreclosures dominated the market. February’s median was an increase of 1.1% from $350,000 the month prior.

The increase in the median -- the price at which half the sales are higher and half lower -- reflects a change in the sales mix, with more higher-end homes and fewer lower-end, bank-owned homes selling, and not necessarily a steady march in home valuations, DataQuick said.

A total of 4,987 homes sold in February, up 2.8% from 4,853 in January and down 0.9% from 5,032 in February 2009. Sales were at their second-lowest level for month of February since 1995, better only than the record low of 3,989 homes sold in February 2008.

Foreclosure sales -- homes sold that had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months – made up 36.6% of the resale market last month. They peaked at 52% in February 2009.

-- Alejandro Lazo