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Sales of million dollar homes plunged in 2008 to the lowest level in five years, the result of a dried-up loan industry for jumbo morgages, as well as a decline of the value of many homes just over the million-dollar threshold.

A total of 24,436 homes were sold in California for a million dollars or more in 2008, down 42.5 percent from 2007. It was the lowest sales count since 20,595 were sold in 2003. In 2006, the million dollar-plus total was 50,010 and peaked in 2005 at 54,773. The total in 2004 was 36,990.

Total California sales -all price levels included- increased 2.5 percent last year to 393,703, up from 383,748 in 2007. Of last year’s sub-$1 million sales, at least 2,052 homes had previously sold for more than a $1 million. Last year, one in sixteen homes sold for $1 million or more, down from one in nine in 2007.

Statewide, there were 608 sales for more than $5 million last year, 386 sales were in the $4 – $5 million range; 963 in the $3 million range, and; 2,899 in the $2 million range.