Having ticked up 2 percent over the past week, the net number of homes on the market in San Francisco (790) has increased 70 percent since the end of last year, as was to be expected with typical seasonality in play (and then some).
While listed inventory levels are still 20 percent lower on a year-over-year basis, a deficit which has been on the decline since mid-November, there are now 15 percent more homes on the market in San Francisco than there were prior to the pandemic, over twice as many as they were in February of 2015, and the second most homes on the market at the start of the spring season in over a decade.
As we outlined last week, expect inventory levels to climb in the near-term, driven by a seasonal increase in listing activity along with the return of properties that failed to sell last year and were quietly withdrawn from the MLS in order to be re-listed as “new” in the spring and a decline in the pace of sales, year-over-year. We’ll keep you posted and plugged-in.
So much of this hinges on return to office policies. No one knows entirely how it’s going to shake out. Assuming offices re-open sometime in March, we should know our answer by the end of 2022.
March of …?
But I don’t want to discourage you from being optimistic, some has to be…