While nearly 60 percent fewer single-family homes and condos were newly listed for sale in San Francisco over the past week than at the same time last year, listed inventory levels, which are down around 20 percent on a year-over-year basis but above average for this time of the year, only ticked down a (1) percent as the pace of sales continues to drop faster than new listing activity.
And once again, despite continued misreports of “record low inventory levels,” which one might be led to infer would be driving prices through the roof based on “basic supply and demand,” the average asking price per square foot of the homes which are on the market in San Francisco is still 10 percent lower than at the same time last year, having dropped back under $925 per square foot earlier this month, with the average price per square foot of the homes which are in contract still running closer to $900 per square foot, which is 4 percent lower than at the same time last year, with a third of all active listings in San Francisco having been reduced at least once, including 29 percent of the active listings for single-family homes.
i’ve definitely seen a trend of places having a very low listing price, like incredibly low, with the idea of getting multiple offers on the place. i’ve been quite interested in seeing what the actual price is and what the seller is willing to accept.
I purchased my home at the bottom of the last recession. It was a real leap of faith that prices wouldn’t continue to go down and there was a real possibility I could have lost my entire down payment. I was lucky – very lucky. But interest rates were less than half of what they are now and the city was still thriving.
It would take a very brave person to invest millions into SF real estate right now. Everything seems to be a crisis – interest rates, a city that enables drug addiction and ignores mental illness, homeless encampments allowed to pop up virtually anywhere and a city government that seems to be hopelessly in over its head when it comes to solving problems brought on by Covid.
On top of all that, many sellers are still of the mindset that in SF prices only rise so they’re very slow to reduce their price and wind up chasing the market down. It seems it’s not a good time to be a buyer or a seller.