However, this pushed the  median price up 4% from December 2011 and up 3.3% year over year from January 2011. The per-square-foot price didn’t do as well, down 1.4% month over month and 6.4% year over year.

On the other hand, January was a good months for 312 lucky sellers of single-family homes in San Francisco, which brings, a 3.3% increase over December 2011, but still a 41.6% drop from January last year.

Looking at the San Francisco housing inventory though the eyes of analysts, we can say it is healthy market given the fact that it would take only 2.6 months to sell through the current inventory, a term known in the industry as “months of supply.” In a market balanced between buyers and sellers, we’d expect to see 5-6 months of supply. Compared to just the month prior, it is a huge jump, as at the beginning of December the housing inventory stood at 12-month of supply.

On the other hand, less sales pushed the median price up 2.1% to $602,500, on a year-over-year basis.

Looking at the bigger picture, for the nine county Bay Area sales in January was up 10.3% compared to a year ago, but down 26.9% from December when 5,479 sales were recorded.

As market analysts highlighted when home sales are up, the median price paid for a property drops. Last mont the recorded median sales price was down 3.6% year-over-year.

Foreclosure resales accounted for 28.0% of the total sales in January, up from 27.8% in December, but down from 35.0% compared to a year ago.

Short sales accounted for 23.9% of Bay Area resales in January, up from 20.7% in December and up from 19.5% a year prior, the DataQuick report show.

Looking at the bigger picture that includes all nine counties of the greater Bay Area, recorded sales volume in December was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis, up 18.6% from the month prior with 7,494 recorded sales compared to 7,178 in December a year prior.

Foreclosures and short sales accounted 49.6% of the whole San Francisco and the Bay Area’s resale market, up from 45.9% in November and up from 48.2% reported a year prior.

DataQuick says foreclosure resales accounted for 28.6% of resales last month, up 3.4% from November, and down from 30.1% a year.

Short sales accounted for an estimated 21.0% of Bay Area resales in December, up 0.4% from November0and up from 18.1 percent a year earlier.

The 250 King Street luxury property was once purchased for $841,500 and that happened six years ago, as Socketsite reports. After buying the property the fresh homeowners invested a significant amount of money by giving a facelift, and upgrading their real estate with hand milled woodwork, built-ins and flooring.

However, the purchase wasn’t a lucky one, as the property hit the market as a short sale back in August 2011, with a $599,000 price tag.

The seller was in default on his first mortgage for $603,918. According to Socketsite’s information the borrower was behind on his payments with $29,721 past due in July, while he had a second mortgage too, with $52,500 past due.

A couple months later it was withdrawn from the market, just to hit the market again with changed price tag.

Now Socketsite report that it closed an escrow this week with a reported price of $707,000.

While the Fed and the Congress have a word fight over which is the best path to housing recovery, Waypoint has a simple action plans: it buys, renovates and rents out distressed single-family homes in Contra Costa and Solano counties.

Those, who were lost their homes to foreclosure or even short sale, the company might have the solution to have a home. As the tight credit standard doesn’t allow for many distressed homeowners to get a mortgage, the company offers them to rent out a home and while they are paying their rent on time and keep the property in good shape they can have a home.

According to Waypoint statistics, about 50% its renters have lost their homes to foreclosures.

A 20-room, 35,000 square-feet mansion located in Hillsborough and known as the Tobin Clark Estate, hit the market last week with a $29 million price tag.

The announcement came from the owner of the property, Sam Bamieh, who is the founder and former Chairman of the American Intertrade Group Inc. from San Mateo.

According to public records, the luxury real estate was built in 1930 by architect David Adler and was ordered by Celia Tobin Clark. The property was named the Cotswold Tudor mansion and sits on six acres of land and it is surrounded by gardens.

It is famous for hosting dignitaries like Presidents Richard Nixon, Geral Ford, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, King Hussein and former British Prime Minister Margater Thatcher, the San Francisco Business Journal informs.

The Clark’s family has a banking background that is reflected in some of the real estate’s luxury features, like bank-vault doors, which open into the silve vault and 1,700-bottle wine vault.

The Bamieh family spent $19 million for renovations in 1992, which targeted the property’s infrastructure, but in the same time it preserved its original design features.

The recently released S&P/Case-Schiller Home Price index predicts a cloudy future for San Francisco home prices considering the active trend. The data tracked by S&P shows that home prices in San Francisco continued to drop, same as home prices across the country.

New numbers released last week painted a weak housing picture, with the 10-city and 20-city indices showing few gains in October and over the past year.

At -11.7% Atlanta posted the lowest annual return. Detroit and Washington DC were the only two cities to post positive annual returns of +2.5% and +1.3%, respectively.

“There was weakness in the monthly statistics, as 19 of the cities posted price declines in October over September,” says David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Indices. “Eleven of the cities and both composites fell by 1.0% or more during the month. And even though some of the annual rates are improving, 18 cities and both Composites are still negative. Nationally, home prices are still below where they were a year ago. The 10-City Composite is down 3.0% and the 20-City is down 3.4% compared to October 2010,” the S&P report emphasizes.

Although the trend is downwards, home prices in the San Francisco metro area recorded only a 0.7% decline in October vs. September, while the annual figure fell 4.7%.

High foreclosure rates and a weak job market continue to weigh on a housing recovery.

Both indices show home prices less than 3% over their April 2009 lows.

However, the same number shows a nearly 6% decline in home sales, compared to a month prior, and an average 7.2% drop in October to November sales over the past seven years. According to DataQuick’s report cited by SocketSite an average of 520 San Francisco homes have sold in November since 2004 when recorded sales volume hit at 682.

Analyzing the city’s median sales price, the real estate tracking company found that it dropped 5.2% on a year-over-year basis, with its $644,500 median price. However, when compared to a month prior, the same median is up 1.5%.

In the nine-county Bay Area, November home sales was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis, but down 2.0% from the month prior. The numbers are the following: 6,317 recorded sales in November current year, compared to 6,111 a year prior, and 6,444 in October ’11).

Out of the nine counties, Sonoma County recorded the highest increase in home sales, with its 16.9% (70 transactions more compared to a month prior), but on the same time the median price declined 9.5%. Solano County posted a 5.3% drop in home sales and an 8.2% decline in median price.

The fabulous 20,000 square foot penthouse atop the St. Regis in the city of San Francisco which was listed for $35 million, has found a buyer and now is in contract, according to SFLuxe.

The luxury property was created by an international award-winning interior design company called Orlando Diaz-Azcuy Design Associates and it is strapping on the 39th and 40th floors. According to the description supplied by SFLuxe the property features 21 foot floor-to-ceiling walls, 2,900 square-feet of terraces, 12.5 bathrooms and 6 bedrooms. Furthermore, the luxury property has a private Keith Yates screening room, a two-story foyer with cascading waterfall, and even a gym, sauna and steam room. However, it has never been lived in.

Public records show the property was purchased by Victor MacFarlane who combine three units at the St. Regis into one massive. However, he gave it back to the bank in a deed in lieu of foreclosure. After its original listing price of $70 million has suffered multiple price cuts, now, is in contract for an undisclosed amount.

The property located at 172 Denslowe was purchased 8 years ago, in March 2003 for $532,000 and it was remodeled and re-landscaped with a makeover featured on HGTV.

Before the HGTV makeover, the property wasn’t too much of a sparkling house, but with the help of the creative team they breathe new life into it in 2009.

The cottage-like house was relandscaped by a young new designer, Sharon Mitchell. The property owners along with Mitchell removed existing landscaping, added a cobblestone front patio and path, installed new white picket fence and added a pergola front arbor to walk away.

This wasn’t all the work done to change the look of the property. According to information found at HGTV website the team painted new, vibrant colors and replaced garage door with French doors and created a new English style garden.

However, a year the makeover the property hit the market with an asking price of $779,000. The price was reduced shortly after to $749,000 and then withdrawn from the market early this year just to be listed as a short sale for $620,000, Socketsite informed.