From the latest edition of The Noe Valley Voice: “Noe Valley homebuyers took advantage of a retreating housing market to purchase real estate at less than full price…”
And while that’s not exactly true (it’s the buyers, not the sellers, which determine a property’s “full price”), the Voice’s point is that single family homes in Noe Valley sold for an average of 99% of list price this past September (compared to 115% of list price in September 2005).
This doesn’t necessarily mean that home prices have fallen (although…), but it does represent a pronounced shift in market psychology and behavior (which sellers, buyers, and agents all need to understand and embrace). And as always, keep in mind that’s 99% of “list price” that’s being reported (and not 99% of “original list price”).
∙ The Cost of Living in Noe [Noe Valley Voice]
∙ Noe Valley Numbers And Insight [SocketSite]
∙ Our Point Exactly [SocketSite]
I’m still not sure median sales price means anything; can someone with access post the changes in price/sq ft, which, I think, are far more accurate as an indicator of direction?
Nonetheless, it’s hard to ignore that condos are down 10%+ YoY…
re: $/sqft, did you check out the link above? down 8.7% from Q2 2005 to Q2 2006.
https://socketsite.com/archives/2006/07/noe_valley_numbers_and_insight_1.html
Those price per square foot numbers are even more amazing when you consider that the only places that are selling now are those that are completely done up: the top, top, top of the market. Whereas a year ago, a wide range of places were all selling, nice ones, middle ones, and crappy ones. The top, top, top end of the market this year is now down 8.7 from the *average* of the market last year.
Prices appear to have thus dropped about 20% or so. That’s truly amazing.
Tipster must be a little tipsy. His dream that prices have fallen 20% has no basis in reality.
Can anyone comment on using price per square foot as a marker in SF existing home sales in neighborhoods like Noe Valley? I’ve observed that lots and lots of homes have wrong (smaller) “official” square footages because of unpermitted additions over the years (basement and attic conversions, etc). Yet people barely seem to discount the value for these unpermitted projects. It’s always made me suspicious of putting much credence on price per square foot as an accurate measure, at least for older SFR. (I know that Rincon buyer at 800/square foot puts a great deal of credence in it, but that’s a different story).