August San Francisco Real Estate Insider
The core Bay Area market has been very active over the past few months as it seems a lot of buyers are anxious to settle in to a new home before the new school year starts (mid to late August for most). How this “rush” translates to the fall season is anyone’s guess but I expect demand for quality single family homes to remain strong.
Within San Francisco itself, supply and demand conditions have diverged dramatically between house and condo markets, with the latter being far weaker, it’s becoming a "buyer's market." On the former, its still competitive for buyers as the market remains strong. To give you perspective on the demand; the median days on market is only 13 days, nearly a third of those homes sold over asking- on average 6.3% over list price.
Among all Bay Area markets, the San Francisco is seeing the softest recovery from the initial shelter-in-place drop in activity in early spring, while some other counties (less expensive, more suburban or rural) are experiencing extremely high demand (See table near the end of this report).
Median Sales Prices
On a three month rolling basis, SF median house sales prices are as high as they've ever been. The median condo sales price has been running lower than the highs of last year.
Diverging House and condo Market Conditions
The next charts illustrate the increasingly stark divide in the levels of inventory and buyer demand between these two major market segments. However, it should be noted that within the condo market, certain segments and locations are performing better than others. The largest condo market in San Francisco (the greater South Beach, SoMa, Mission Bay and Civic Center area) dominated by large complexes and high-rise buildings, including continuing new construction projects, is seeing the weakest conditions.
As illustrated in the following two graphs, the supply of listings on the market is at its highest point in eight years, with the inventory of condos spiking way up. As a market softens, correct pricing becomes increasingly critical for sellers as they compete for buyers.
Comparative Conditions around the Bay Area
This table ranks each county by the percentage of active listings going into contract in June/July 2020 (a standard statistic of market heat) and compares it to the same period of last year, and then rates the year-over-year change. Many counties are seeing big increases in demand over last year. The San Francisco house market is about the same as last year, and the San Francisco condo market is substantially cooler.
