Sonoma County Home Sales Decline, But Outlook Still Good

Sonoma County's housing market lost some of its holiday season robustness in January, though prices continue to outpace those from a year earlier, a real estate information service reported.

The median home price rose by nearly 20 percent in Sonoma County from January 2012 to January 2013, DataQuick reported. The median home price for the county last month was $340,000, up from $285,000 in January 2012.

It's expected the median home price in Healdsburg will increase by over 10 percent this year, a recent study predicted.

But the number of home sales in Sonoma County actually declined when comparing January 2012 to last month: 398 homes sold in Janary 2013, down 6 percent from 423 sales a year ago.

A total of 39 homes were sold in Healdsburg in January, according to the real estate website Zillow.com.

Throughout the nine-county Bay Area tracked by DataQuick, home prices and the volume of sales completed in January were the in six years and the tenth straight year-over-year increase in the median sale price.

The median price paid for a home in the Bay Area was $415,000 in January. That was down 6.3 percent from $442,750 in December, and up 27.3 percent from $326,000 in January a year ago, according to DataQuick.

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