Home sales, economy and job market show signs of improvement
2012 has certainly started off on the right foot. Home sales in the Bay Area were up in January. Several key economic reports showed surprising gains. And even the long beleaguered job market turned in positive numbers in the initial weeks of the new year. Bay Area home sales in January jumped to their highest level for the month in five full years, according to DataQuick, the La Jolla-based real estate research firm. A total of 5,479 new and resale houses and condos sold in the nine-county region during the month, up 10.3 percent from January 2011. This marked the seventh straight month of year-over-year sales gains. DataQuick attributed the improvement to lower home prices, record-low mortgage interest rates, a surge in investor purchases and an improving economy. While the jump in sales is encouraging, the firm cautioned that activity was still tilted heavily toward distressed sales in many Bay Area markets. As a result, the median sale price dipped 2.8 percent from the previous mo...