Firm: San Francisco Bay Area home sales drop 23 percent, slowest for July in 15 years

Firm: N. Calif home sales drop 23 percent in July

LOS ANGELES — Home sales in the San Francisco Bay Area plummeted 22.8 percent last month from the previous year to reach their lowest level in 15 years, a tracking firm reported Thursday.

San Diego-based MDA DataQuick said the drop from 8,771 homes in July 2009 to 6,773 homes last month came as the market adjusted to the end of federal tax credits for first-time buyers.

Last month was the slowest July since 1995, when just under 6,666 homes were sold in the nine-county region, the firm said. Sales were also down 19.1 percent from around 8,373 in June.

“There was more to last month’s sales drop than expiring federal home buyer tax credits, but we think they were the main reason the decline was so sharp,” DataQuick president John Walsh said. “As the boost from the credits waned, low mortgage rates just weren’t enough to outweigh the weak economic recovery and low consumer confidence.”

The median home price in the region declined 2 percent to $402,000 last month from $410,000 in June.

However, the median price last month was up 1.8 percent from $395,000 in July 2009.