By Town Crier Staff Report

The California Association of Realtors reported the median price of an existing, single-family detached home in California hit a new record for the first quarter of 2002.

Closed escrow sales of existing single-family homes totaled 593,000 in the first quarter of 2002, while the first quarter sales in 2001 totaled 502,530, an 18.1 percent increase.

In Santa Clara County home sales skyrocketed in April, increasing 118 percent over last April and rising 11 percent compared to March, another spectacular month for sales. The 1,492, home sales were highest since records began in January 1994 and April’s sales were the tops for any month since then.

Prices, while still lower than last year, are rising month-over-month. The average single-family home price, 14.9 percent less than last March, is up 1.4 percent over January at $654,161. The median home price shows the same thing: 5.3 percent less than March 2001 and 2 percent more than February 2002 at $535,000.

Thirty-year fixed mortgage interest rates averaged 6.97 percent during the first quarter of 2002, compared to 7.01 percent in the first quarter of 2001. Adjustable mortgage rates averaged 5.08 percent.

It took longer to sell a house in 2002 when the average was 35 days compared to 29 days last year in the same quarter.

Of the 10 cities with the highest median home prices in California during the first quarter of 2002 was Belvedere/Tiburon, $1,200,000; Saratoga, $1,025,000; Los Altos, $995,000; and the rest of the 10 were located in Southern California. The 10 cities with the largest annual increase in median home prices in the first quarter were all in Southern California.