School’s out, and so are buyers’ wallets when it comes to real estate in San Francisco. Here’s what’s going on in the market now:
Prices are rising. The average single-family home price was $1,817,390 in the second quarter of 2015, up 19.5% from Q2 2014. Condo price hikes were more modest, with the average second quarter price hitting $1,284,140 and jumping up by 13% over Q2 2014.
Inventory is healthy. Contrary to what you may be hearing, there are plenty of homes out there. I’m seeing several new properties hit the market weekly for my different buyer clients. And there are even homes spending a bit of time on the market, with no offer date in sight.
Off-market listings are growing. These are properties that sellers agree to allow their agents to market within their own agent and broker networks, and not in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Though sellers are never guaranteed that what they accept off market will be the best price they can possibly get, off-market listings can be good buyer opportunities. I am routinely scheduling showings for off-market listings that I hear about within my large agent network.
Overbidding is routine. List prices are still set lower than the target selling price; any seller or listing agent who ventures forward to break this trend will unfortunately not get a great buyer response. Average citywide overbids for houses (12%) and condos (10%) in May-June weren’t actually that astronomical. But irrational overbidding continues to creep into the market. A small portion of deep-pocketed buyers equates being competitive with recklessly throwing a million or more dollars over list prices.
New construction is flying off the shelf. South Beach’s 72 Townsend is hosting hard hat tours, and 555 Fulton in Hayes Valley is busy guiding potential buyers to loan preapproval with its in-house lenders. Projects like The Rockwell in Pacific Heights, Hayes Valley’s 400 Grove and V-20 in the Mission are close to selling out or have done so in only a few weeks.
Tech is driving the real estate market. The tech industry continues to fuel the San Francisco market, as its cash-flush workers flex their financial muscle in neighborhoods like Noe Valley, the Mission, South Beach, SoMa and NoPa where there are restaurants, cafes, services and transportation hubs in easy walking distance