With few homes newly listed for sale over the past week, as is typical heading into the holiday weekend, and old listings that haven’t moved being withdrawn from the MLS, but likely to soon return anew with an official “1” day on the market and perhaps a “fresh” new price (i.e., reduction), the number of homes currently listed for sale in San Francisco ticked down a couple of points over the past week to 640 but remains over 60 percent higher versus the same time last year, not including the vast majority of new construction condos available for sale across the city (the number of which has been hovering around 1,100 and roughly 60 percent higher as well).
At a more granular level, the number of single-family homes listed for sale in the city (250) remains over 40 percent higher versus the same time last year while the number of listed condominiums on the market (390) is running 80 percent higher. And in terms of pricing and expectations, roughly 22 percent of actively listings have undergone at least one price reduction versus 12 percent at the end of August last year.
At the same time, recorded sales in Francisco, which include both listed and unlisted transactions, were up 1.7 percent on a year-over-year basis in July but are running 2.2 percent lower in the first seven months of the year as compared the year before.
Expect a bolus of new listings next week and for inventory levels to soon jump by over 20 percent and then continue to rise through October at the very least.
What might you give for a first-time homebuyer going into this buying season? I’m specifically looking at the north east quadrant of the city and want to buy a place big enough for a family.
Winter months are always the best to buy in. The only people who sell after Thanksgiving/Christmas/NY are those that are generally desperate. As my real estate agent says, “she always gets a few deals in winter”.
UPDATE: Inventory of Homes Listed for Sale in SF Jumps 30 Percent