San Francisco Homes Prices Soaring

---

Homes prices in San Francisco Bay area jumped 24.6 percent in February from a year earlier, despite slow sales, according to a report from DataQuick.

The median price for a home in the Bay area was $405,000, down 2.4 percent from $415,000 in January, but still a dramatic increase from the $325,000 in February a year ago, the report states.

However, the number of sales continued to decline. DataQuick tracked 5,404 sales in February, down 6.1 percent from a year ago.

San Francisco was one of the area's hardest hit by the real estate collapse in the U.S. Median home price in the Bay area, which covers nine counties, reached a high of $665,000 in the summer of 2007, before falling to a low of $290,000 in March, 2009, according to DataQuick.

Contra Costa county prices increased 32.3 percent in the last year, the biggest gain in the area, followed by Napa, which posted a 29.7 percent increase, the research firm said.

The percentage of all cash buyers rose to a record of 31.9 percent of sales in February, according to DataQuick. Absentee buyers--mostly investors--made up 28.2 percent of the overall market, "an all-time high,"  paying a median of $290,000, up 18.4 percent from a year earlier, the report says.

Overall, homes prices in California rose 20.9 percent from a year ago, the 12th consecutive month of increases in the state's median sale price, DataQuick reported.

"The last time the number of homes sold [in the San Francisco Bay area] exceeded the historical average for a given month was back in 2006," Jon Walsh, DataQuick president, said in a statement. "So a lot of demand has accumulated... the stage is set for price gains."