Home sales in the Bay Area were down 13.5 percent in July compared to the same month in 2015, according to data released today by real estate data company CoreLogic.
July is the fourth consecutive month home sales have been down across the nine-county region. According to CoreLogic analyst Andrew LePage, that's a bigger issue than the big July dip.
"When you get to three, four, five, six months, then it starts looking like a real trend," LePage said.
He points to a familiar culprit -- lack of affordable housing -- as one of the main drivers behind the consistent declines. Also to blame, he says, is low housing inventory in many markets, moderately tight credit and a quirk of the calendar. Since there were five weekends in July, there were two fewer business days to record home sales.
"If you adjust for that, sales are still down year-over-year, just not down as much," he said.