Bay Area Come Back

Bay Area home prices edged higher in April for the first time in 18 months, a sign that the region’s housing downturn may finally be easing, according to a new report.A total of 7,139 new and resale houses and condos sold in the Bay Area last month, up 13.1 percent from a year ago. It was the eighth consecutive year-over-year gain for the nine-county region.

From http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090521/BUSINESS/905219940/1036?Title=Is-the-Bay-Area-housing-market-stabilizing-

Marin County Prices and Mortgages

Bob Ravasio reports over at his Marin real estate blog that mortgages are as low 4.85%  in the Bay Area. Bob also rips into the sensationalization of a recent SF Chronicle article that said Marin County homes are down 26%. Which is a twisting of the facts.

As Bob tells it:

Thank goodness it’s not true.
While there was more information in the body of the article, for those who read that far, it made it clear that the reason average sale price has gone down so dramatically  is that more low priced condos are selling relative to single family homes. These tend to be much lower value, driving the average down on a much smaller base.

Average sale price is a terrible barometer of what is going on in the short term, yet because it is the easiest to explain or analyze, it is the statistic that gets used all of the time.