Silicon Valley Higher End Home Prices Improve

1. By Sue McAllister, Mercury News, 6/19/2009

With costlier homes selling better than they have in months, the median price of Silicon Valley houses rose 9 percent in May, the biggest month-over-month jump since March 2000, according to a report released Thursday. In Santa Clara County, the median price of previously owned single-family houses that changed hands last month rose to $475,000 from $435,000 in April, according to MDA DataQuick, which gathers the data from public records. But May's median price still represented a 32 percent decline from May 2008. Since hitting a low of $420,000 in January, median house prices in the county have risen every month. That trend, said Quincy Virgilio, president of the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors, is "a good indication that our market is starting to stabilize.
"Folks who see the value in the higher end are jumping into the market," he said.