Home prices of six of the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties are in the red and the rest show year-over-year home price gains of less than 3.5 percent, according to October statistics from La Jolla, CA-based DataQuick Information Systems.

The area's foreclosure numbers are also revealing quarter-to-quarter jumps well into double digits.

The median price of all homes -- new, resales, single-family and condos -- was dead flat in the nine-county region (which includes San Francisco and Silicon Valley) at $614,000 in October 2005 and October 2006.

The median hovered around $630,000 last spring and early summer, and spiked at $644,000 in June before heading down, DataQuick reported.

Sales, at 7,979, were down 24.1 percent from a year ago when they came in at 10,508. October's sales count was the lowest in any October since 2001 when 7,867 homes were sold and the market was floundering. The number is also well off the average. DataQuick's sales average for the month in the region is 8,445, going back to 1998.

"The market is in the midst of its post-frenzy rebalancing phase. The sky is probably not falling, as some have predicted. But there will be those who bought near or at the peak, and who could find themselves in financial trouble if they need to sell and move sooner than they had planned," said Marshall Prentice, DataQuick president.

That's just what's happening in growing numbers in at least three of the largest counties in the region where double digit increases in foreclosures are becoming normal.

Santa Clara County and San Francisco County suffered foreclosures at least 20 percent greater than the number during the second quarter and the Oakland-Alameda County area's foreclosure numbers jumped nearly 36 percent, during the same period, according to RealtyTrac.

DataQuick says while foreclosure activity is rising, the numbers remain below historical averages.

"It appears that a combination of factors, including a slowdown in home sales and lower home appreciation rates are contributing to higher numbers of delinquencies. It's also likely that part of the reason for the increased foreclosure rates is the long-anticipated effect of the first wave of adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) re-setting at higher monthly payments, putting homeowners into financial distress," said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.

Only three counties, Alameda, Marin and Santa Clara saw year over year home price increases, with Marin's 3.3 percent increase the best the region could do.

In wine county, Napa County home prices fell a sobering 8.7 percent in October, compared to a year ago. Nearby Sonoma County's home prices slipped 5.9 percent.

The area's next greatest year-to-year home price decrease came next door and to the north of Alameda County, in the bedroom community of Contra Costa County, where buyers once fled for relatively cheaper housing and are now seeing home prices drop 5.4 percent for the year.

DataQuick said despite the growing number of foreclosures and falling home prices, indicators of market distress remained at a moderate level, though home buyers were pulling away from ARMs. Down payment sizes are stable, as are flipping rates and non-owner occupied buying activity, DataQuick reported.

Published: November 17, 2006

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.