Bay Area home sales continued a steady string of yearly gains in October, with middle to high-end homes accounting for the increased inactivity, according to a report Wednesday.
The nearly 8,000 sales of all types of homes in the nine-county Bay Area last month shows the market is continuing to recover from the worst downturn in decades, the real estate information service DataQuick reported.
Homes sales were up 21 percent from a year ago, and have increased over the previous year for 16 months in a row, the company said. But sales still are about 9 percent below the average October for the past 25 years.
There were 50 homes sold for $2 million or more in Santa Clara County in October, the most for an

October in DataQuick’s records going back to 1988.
“The middle and high end of the market are driving the increase,” said Andrew LePage of DataQuick.
“We’re seeing more and more people getting off the sidelines, drawn by low rates that have gotten even lower and improvements in consumer confidence,” LePage said. “More people feel more confident in their jobs and believe we’ve probably hit bottom with home prices, so they’re not worried about being underwater.”
The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 3.4 percent in the past week.

By Pete Carey at Mercury News.