Sales were down by double digits nearly everywhere throughout the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area, but the high-end markets west of the Bay carried the day in May.

May Bay Area-wide sales of new, existing, single-family and condo homes were up 8.5 percent in a seasonal increase from April, but down 18.7 percent on the year, according to La Jolla-based realty market tracker DataQuick.

Among all counties, only Marin County, just across the Golden Gate, north of San Francisco, saw both increased home sales (up 1.1 percent, as the only county with a sales increase) and home prices (up 4.3 percent).

"As of June 6, 2007, 24 percent of available listings in Marin County are in escrow, which some sources would say indicates a buyer's market. However, that statistic isn't the only indicator. For the month of May 2007, 299 homes sold in Marin County for an average final selling price of $1,237,667," Kelly Eling, of Pacific Union-GMAC's Larkspur office reported to RealtyTimes' Market Conditions.

Higher-end homes throughout the Bay Area market have been carrying prices in many counties since lower priced homes have been harder to finance.

The tight money is fallout from the ailing alternative loan market of subprime, nontraditional and other risky loans.

The median price for the entire Bay Area was up 3.4 percent on the year ending in May.

Rising home prices strung the more expensive west side of the bay, from Marin County, south to San Francisco (up 8.4 percent), San Mateo (up 5.5 percent) and Santa Clara County (Silicon Valley, up 3.4 percent).

"The near-demise of the no-money down, subprime loans has impacted the East side, North Valley, and South Valley where more homes are for sale and are selling below asking price. Meanwhile, the West Valley areas of Cupertino, Los Altos, Palo Alto, Los Gatos and Saratoga are humming along with many homes selling with multiple offers," Diane Bogart, of Coldwell Banker-Cornish & Carey in Los Gatos reported to Realty Times' Market Conditions.

The tighter mortgage market has also strung the west side of the bay with declining sales ranging from the nearly 11 percent year-over-year slip in San Mateo and San Francisco counties to the 12.7 sales decline in Silicon Valley, which experienced its worst sales in six years.

"It's likely a lot of potential buyers have been sitting on the fence. There may be an up tick in sales now because mortgage interest rates have been trending up the past few weeks, and they'll want to get in before rates go up further," said Marshall Prentice, DataQuick president.

Across the bay, to the east, the largest county, Alameda County saw sales decline over the past year by 17.9 percent as home prices slipped 1.9 percent. Contra Costa suffered a 29.5 percent decline in sales, but managed to keep home prices flat with an 0.9 percent increase.

"In general it is a buyer's market, reflected by a drop in housing prices in certain areas. However, I am selling homes in two weeks at substantial premiums in the most desirable areas. The high rate of foreclosures has caused some of the price decline but a 10 percent to 15 percent price correction is probably warranted. Earnest Johnson in Gateway Investments, Inc.'s Alameda office reported to Realty Times' Market Conditions.

In the Bay Area's north district, only Napa County enjoyed increased home prices, which were up 13.1 percent, the greatest price increase in the Bay Area, as sales in Wine Country when bust by 35.6 percent.

Solano County captured the Bay Area's title for the greatest home sales decline as the number of transactions crashed by 37.6 percent and prices fell 4.4 percent. Sonoma also experienced both a sales decline, by 14.6 percent and median home price decline, down 5.4 percent, the greatest home price decline in San Francisco Bay Area market, according to DataQuick.

Published: June 18, 2007

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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.