The Bay Area housing shortage showed no signs of abating in July, as the number of homes sold fell by 17.3% from June and by 2.6% from July of last year, according to a CoreLogic report released Wednesday.
Sales typically fall between June and July as house hunters and real estate agents head off on vacation, but the average drop-off since 1988 has been only 6%. The number of homes sold last month was the lowest for a July since 2011. CoreLogic attributed the sharp slowdown to "a tight inventory and waning affordability."
Meanwhile, the median price paid for a home in the nine-county region last month was $758,000, down 1.6% from a record $770,500 in June but up 9.1% year over year. The report includes new and existing single-family dwellings and condos.
Only 21% of households in the Bay Area could afford a median-priced home in the second quarter, according to the California Association of Realtors' affordability index. That's down from 25% in the first quarter.
By the association's reckoning, a Bay Area buyer would need $179,390 in annual income to buy the median-priced home.
Home prices are soaring because the region's supply of new housing is not keeping up with demand, which is fueled largely by job growth, especially in high-paying technology jobs.
