As projected, the net number of single-family homes and condos on the market in San Francisco appears to have hit its annual peak, with 6 percent fewer homes on the market than there were at the same time last year but 36 percent more than there were prior to the pandemic, nearly three times as many as there were in October of 2015, and 30 percent more than average, despite misreports of “record low inventory levels” and subsequent misanalyses of the market that appears to have led some seriously astray.
At the same time, the percentage of listings in San Francisco that have been reduced at least once has already ticked up to 35 percent and is poised to continue to climb through the end of the year, with the pace of sales have dropped to a lower six-plus-year low and an uptick in unsold properties being withdrawn from the MLS, most of which are likely to return anew in the spring, none of which should catch any plugged-in readers, other than the most obstinate, by surprise.