Home Front: Capital-area home sales reach near two-year high in June

We will have a full online story posted on sacbee.com very soon about the new June numbers from DataQuick. In the meantime here is a quick snapshot. Bottom line, the year-over-year rises continued for a third straight month, showing a solid upward trend.
The reason is pretty simple: It's getting affordable around here for a lot more people.

The full chart can be found here.

Some highlights in the meantime:

Sacramento County's 2,053 sales of existing homes was the highest since Oct. 2005. Sales of new and existing homes combined were the highest since June 2006. They were up 45.7 percent from the same time last year. That was the highest rate of increase yet since April revealed a 26.3 percent gain over the same time in 2007.

Falling prices tell much of the story. With repos dominating sales activity, June's median resale home price of $214,000 is the lowest since $210,000 in Feb. 2003. Median prices for new and existing homes combined slipped to $220,000 - a level last seen in Aug. 2002, DataQuick reported.

Median is that point where half cost more and half less.

Placer County reported 610 sales of new and existing homes combined, 9.9 percent fewer than the same time last year. It was the county's fewest sales since June 1996, DataQuick reported.

Median prices of all homes declined to $335,000, same as Aug. 2003. Prices of existing homes at $341,5000 were the lowest since March 2004.

El Dorado County, with 210 sales, was down 9.5 percent from the same time last. It's median price of $380,000 is back to levels seen in July 2004.

Yolo County reported 293 sales, up 17.7 percent from the same time last year. It's median price, $310,250, is back to levels seen in Feb. 2004.

Sutter County had 107 June sales, according to DataQuick, 9.2 percent more than June 2007. Its median price is $208,000, is the lowest since Jan. 2004.

Yuba County saw a 14.4 percent gain in sales from the same month last year, with 135 sales, DataQuick reported. Repeating a pattern started in March and April, its median price of $195,000 was below $200,000 for the first time since Jan. 2004.