Slight gain in home sales prices falls off

Volume also shrinks as foreclosure backlog eases

By J.N. Sbranti
jnsbranti@modbee.com

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Easy come, easy go.

Three months of modest home price gains disappeared in August.

Stanislaus County's median home sales price dropped back to $135,000 last month, the same as it was in May, according to preliminary data released late Thursday by MDA DataQuick.

BY THE NUMBERS

Median home sales prices in August:
- Stanislaus ........ $135,000
- San Joaquin ..... $155,000
- Merced ............. $109,500
- Tuolumne ......... $222,500
— MDA DataQuick
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Sales volume also dipped in Stanislaus, throughout the Northern San Joaquin Valley and most of California.

Only 746 Stanislaus homes closed escrow in August, compared with about 890 in June and July. But as before, nearly two of every three homes sold previously had been foreclosures.

The unsold inventory of bank-owned property is drying up, according to Andrew LaPage, who analyzes statistics for DataQuick.

"There's not that big backlog of foreclosed homes that haven't been sold like there used to be," LaPage said.

That's also the case statewide, which DataQuick cites as the probable reason total sales volume dropped.

"The norm is for home sales to increase between July and August," LaPage said. Since 1988, records show sales rose more than 4 percent during August compared with July. This year, by contrast, statewide sales dropped nearly 12 percent.

The median price paid for a California home in August was $249,000, down from $250,000 in July and $301,000 a year earlier.

DataQuick also reports that the median home price in the San Francisco Bay Area fell by 9 percent as the number of homes sold in the nine-county region dropped 14 percent.

Bee staff writer J.N. Sbranti can be reached at jnsbranti@modbee.com or 578-2196.