SAN JOSE - One in every eight homes sold in the San Jose/ San Francisco Bay area last year went for $1 million or more, according to data from a real estate tracking firm. Across-the-board appreciation in the nine-county area pushed the sale prices for 16,981 houses and condominiums, or 13.5 percent of total homes sold, into what was once considered a luxury price zone, researcher John Karevoll with DataQuick Information Systems said Tuesday.

That’s a nearly 50 percent increase from a year earlier, when 11,399 homes, or 8.5 percent of the total, sold for at least $1 million, according to the research firm.

Only a small fraction of the homes sold, 2.6 percent of the total, went for that in 1999, according to the firm.

The rise in high-end home sales was most pronounced in Solano County, typically one of the least expensive locations in the Bay Area.
Million-dollar home sales in the county, which includes the communities of Vacaville, Vallejo and Fairfield, jumped 154 percent in 2005, compared to a 43.3 percent increase in San Francisco, according to the firm.
Strong demand and low interest rates have fueled the region’s housing boom. Home prices grew about 18 percent in the region in 2005 compared to the year before.

Statewide, nearly 49,000 homes sold for $1 million or more in 2005, an increase of nearly 50 percent from a year earlier, according to the firm.
The home affordability index in the Bay Area is still in the 14% range.