Bay Area Home Sales Jump 29 Percent In April

Home sales in the San Francisco Bay area jumped nearly 29 percent from March to April as bargain hunters found it easier to get loans and pick up property on the cheap.

But the slumping real estate market in one of the country's most expensive regions hasn't recovered from a wave of foreclosures and tightened lending requirements that are causing property values to plummet, according to a report Tuesday by DataQuick Information Systems.

Prices continued to drop in the nine-county region measured by the report, which includes San Francisco and its surrounding areas. That's a sign that home owners are still finding it hard to unload their properties without steep discounts.