SAN RAMON, Calif. -- The real estate tracking company Dataquick reported the median cost of a home in the nine Bay Area counties is now $375,000. A year ago it was $631,000.

So there are deals to be had, especially in foreclosures. An auction on Thursday night in San Ramon offered 60 homes for sale.

It was the American dream come true for some folks.

Mitra Shirkhodaei came from San Jose with her daughter and her real estate agent with her eye on a specific two bedroom condo. Translating from Farsi for her mother, daughter Masei Shirkhodaei said, "Well, she's nervous because she doesn't know if she's going to get it or not. So she's excited because that's what she wants, but she's also not because she doesn't know if she's going to win the bid."

While they were waiting, other properties came up first.

A one bedroom condo on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland was for sale. Last spring the asking price was $219,000. Thursday night it went for $110,000.

Bob Bellack, the Zetabid Auctions Chairman, described it as the clearing out as a result of the credit crisis. "What you had is banks had homes on their books for a long time. You know, as much as 600 days, and they're finally getting marked down to the real valuation, or in Wall Street terms, it's marked to market."

The auction brought out plenty of real estate investors. One was Gil Mitchell. "I've been waiting for years to invest in California. This is the first time that I know of in about 20 years where you can actually invest in residential real estate and the numbers work." He meant that one could buy a rental property and be assured that the rent would exceed the mortgage payment.

Another investor, real estate broker George Vassiliades bought a six bedroom house in Oakland for $150,000. "It's two units, you know, it's kind of updated upstairs, three bedrooms, hopefully you get at least $1,500 for the top unit, another $1,000 from the bottom."

The auction finally rolled around to the mother and daughter from San Jose. "We won. She's been wanting this condo and she got it and we're very excited. So, good times right now," said Masei Shirkhodaei. The San Jose condo had been listed for $280,000 and they got it for $160,000.

Auction officials said they expect the market to stay like this through at least 2010.