In what could be a bit of relief for buyers weary of competitive bidding, the sales dip marked a break from the brisk pace of recent months when new record highs were set in an already pricey market. Sales of single-family homes had risen on a year-over-year basis during each of the previous seven months, going back to March.
Median sale prices rose, though not by the double-digit margins that had become routine for some parts of the region during the frenzy of the past several years.
“The rate of home price appreciation has ratcheted down in a lot of markets,” said Andrew LePage, research analyst for the CoreLogic real estate information service, which crunched the latest numbers. He noted that buyers continue to flock to less costly inland communities in Contra Costa and Solano counties, where sales rose nearly 8 percent between October 2014 and October 2015.
The overall slowing of the market is both seasonal and “a sign of the times,” he said, citing the tight inventory and lack of affordability that plague the Bay Area’s nine counties. And as the market heads into its slow season, there can be “good news for home shoppers … less competition and possibly a lower price.”
With children in school and the holidays coming, year’s end tends to be a down time for house hunting. Inventory shrinks even further and potential buyers “get on the Internet five different times and see nothing, so they stop looking,” said Margaret Garber-Teeter, an Alain Pinel agent based in Walnut Creek. “They say, `I’m going to wait until spring.’”
In Yolo County, there were fewer than 10 homes sold during October. Meanwhile, the sale of existing homes numbered 172, a 21 percent increase from October 2014. The mean price for those homes was $346,550, about 8.3 percent more than the previous year.
