Despite some misreports of a “market rebound” making the rounds last month and inventory levels ticking up, the number of single-family homes and condos in contract to be sold in San Francisco dropped nearly 10 percent over the past week and pending home sales down 13 percent versus the same time last year, representing the largest year-over-year decline in pending home sales since the fourth quarter of last year and the slowest pace for this time of the year in over 7 years.
And while “only down 13 percent” on a year-over-year basis, pending home sales in San Francisco are down over 50 percent versus two years ago and 55 percent lower than in March of 2021, at which point there was 8 percent less inventory on the market.
At the same time, the average asking price per square foot of the homes which are in contract is still hovering around $900 per square foot in San Francisco, which is “only one (1) percent lower than at the same time last year” but over 10 percent lower than its peak in 2022 and inching down.
We reap what we sow.
Yup. Who knew that historic illiquid-asset bubbles fueled by extended zero-percent interest policy and unprecedented, massive Fed purchase of underwater mortgage-backed securities at face value have a tendency to not last forever?
The same people who knew that a global pandemic would sweep across the world, and that the government would hand out money to anyone who would respond to a robocall with an application, and that San Francisco would adopt non-enforcement of property crime laws and tacit acceptance of lethal drug commercialization on our streets!
I’m sure Fentanyl and laissez-faire criminal activity has nothing to do with it.
So, what’s your explanation for the many other real estate markets – small, medium, and large; urban and exurban; blue state and red state – that are experiencing slowdowns?
The answer is either a) something other than fetty & crime, in which case there must be some other mysterious, unknown cause (like, maybe, ZIRP and QE∞?) or b) also fetty & crime, in which San Francisco isn’t a unique, outlier, criminal-coddlin’ commie hellhole after all, and all the screaming about drugs & hoboes & crime betrays hypocritical, self-serving, power-grabbing class war.
Which is it?
Things seem to be slow as realtors are calling me offering to sell my home. I wonder if there are any realtors that have been laid off?
Aren’t most real estate agents independent business owners, or contractors at their brokerages, sorta like how Uber drivers are classified as contractors rather than employees of Uber? If that’s correct, that would mean they are self-employed, meaning they do not have the right to some regular employee benefits such as unemployment insurance after a mass layoff.
Either way, I think it’s plainly apparent that there are (or were, prior to the pandemic) too many real estate agents here competing for listings and trying to make as much money as they can from S.F. residents before taking their “winnings” and moving to Florida or Texas.