Million Dollar Listing
A drop in the number of million-dollar plus homes sold in California has marked its fourth consecutive year (2009) on the downslide. Hillsborough ranked the highest with the most expensive home selling at $8 mil, with Menlo Park a close second. To follow were Cupertino, Los Altos and Saratoga, while Palo Alto, Fremont and Los Gatos were the next grouping on the list with Los Gatos’ top seller peaking at $4.25 million. California communities where almost all sales of homes were in the million-dollar category were Portola Valley and Atherton in San Mateo County, Newport Beach in Orange County, Ross in Marin County and Rancho Santa Fe in San Diego County.
MDA DataQuick, a real estate service out of San Diego recently reported that 18,621 California homes sold for a million dollars or more last year, down 23.8 percent from 24,436 in 2008. In 2007 the total was 42,506, in 2006 it was 50,010 and in 2005 it peaked at 54,773. Last year was the lowest sales count since 2002, when 15,703 were sold.
1,457 newly built homes accounted for 2009's $1 million-plus sales, down 50.3 percent from 2,933 for 2008. There were 1,542 condo sales in the million-dollar category, down 34.7 percent from 2,362 the year before. Condos sold at the million-or-more level were in San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
While these statistics are mildly interesting, most consumers in the greater Bay Area do not fall in the category of the million dollar listing. If you are facing foreclosure, need assistance with asset management or protection or are considering filing bankruptcy, a Bay Area Bankruptcy Attorney may be in order. No matter what monetary bracket you fall into, consumers in debt are rampant in our current economic crisis, as commercial filings skyrocket, the dow dips, retail businesses file left and right, loans get modified and unemployment continues to plummet. However, the upside to those in financially dire straits are the bankruptcy options available to you, including the Fresh Start of a Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
