MILLION DOLLAR HOME SALES REACH ALL-TIME HIGH

By Brent Begin, Bay City News Service

January 25, 2006

The amount of $1 million-plus homes sold in California in 2005 rose for a fourth straight year to its highest mark, according to a report released Tuesday.

DataQuick Information Systems, a real estate information service, reported 48,666 homes sold for over $1 million in 2005, a 47 percent growth from 2004.

The increase was in large part due to an increase in home values across the board, not just luxury homes, according to DataQuick President Marshall Prentice.

Several Bay Area cities and communities were named in the report.

Virtually all houses in the tiny, unincorporated, Marin County community of Ross, home to stars Sean Penn and Huey Lewis, were valued at more than $1 million. San Francisco made the list for its abundance of million dollar condos, and Union City was mentioned as a community new to the list.

DataQuick's top-25 list included other notable Bay Area communities like Hillsborough, Saratoga, Cupertino, Mill Valley, San Jose, Fremont, Danville and Los Altos.

The most expensive home sold in California during 2005 was a six-bedroom, 12-bathroom house on six acres in La Jolla, Calif. for $23.5 million.

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