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Low Prices Boost January Bay Area Home Sales To 5-Year High

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/AP) - Home sales in the San Francisco Bay area reached a five-year high for January last month as prices and mortgage rates plunged, but many of those were so-called distressed sales.

The San Diego-based real estate tracking firm DataQuick says 5,479 homes were sold in the nine-county Bay Area. That was down nearly 27 percent from December but it was still a 10-percent improvement over January 2011.

DataQuick said the December-to-January drop is normal for the season and the January-versus-January figures show real improvement.

At the same time, the median sales price continued to drop, falling nearly 3 percent from December to $326,000 -- half the peak price reached in 2007.

Foreclosure resales and short sales made up half of all sales of existing homes.

 

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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