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With purchase activity having started to rebound last month, the number of homes in contract to be sold across San Francisco is now back to within 5 percent of its mark at the same time last year.

That being said, the pace of sales has been down an average of 30 percent on a year-over-year basis over the past three months, a drop in volume which will be difficult to make up when it comes to annual sales, particularly as the hit occurred at the height of the typical spring buying/selling season.

And with the rebound in purchase activity still lagging the pace of new listings, inventory levels continue to tick up across the city.

Article source: https://socketsite.com/archives/2020/06/number-of-homes-in-contract-across-s-f-nearly-even-yoy-but.html

With the number of homes newly listed for sale in San Francisco having outpaced the number of purchase contracts that were inked for the eighth week in a row, there are now 1,000 homes listed for sale across the city.

That’s 40 percent more inventory than at the same time last year, another 9-year seasonal high, and within 4 percent of hitting a 9-year high in the absolute (keep in mind that inventory levels typically don’t peak until October), a jump which shouldn’t catch any plugged-in readers by surprise.

At a more granular level, the number of single-family homes currently listed for sale across the city (310) is currently 27 percent higher than at the same time last year while the number of condos (690) is up by nearly 50 percent. And the percentage of listings which have undergone at least one official price reduction has been ticked up to 20 percent, which is five (5) percentage points higher than at the same time last year.

We’ll keep you posted and plugged-in.

Article source: https://socketsite.com/archives/2020/06/inventory-levels-in-san-francisco-nearing-another-milestone.html

Eager buyers and reluctant sellers pushed Bay Area homes prices higher again in April, fueling quick sales and a robust market despite coronavirus restrictions.

Median sale prices climbed in seven core Silicon Valley and East Bay counties, according to a Zillow analysis. Prices jumped 7 percent in Alameda County and 6 percent in Santa Clara County from the previous April. The median sale price in April for a single-family home in the Bay Area was $896,000.

Fewer homes went up for sale as sellers pulled back from having strangers tour their houses, but buyers snapped them up at a pace rivaling the height of the housing boom in 2017 and 2018.

“The really big picture story is that prices, especially for single-family homes, have really held up during the crisis,” said Zillow economist Jeff Tucker. The relatively strong, tech-driven Bay Area economy, tight home inventory and historically low interest rates contributed to rising prices during the first full month of pandemic restrictions, he said.

The median price for a single-family home sold in April rose to $1.27 million in Santa Clara County and $940,000 in Alameda County. Other Bay Area counties saw smaller gains: Prices rose 3.1 percent to $1.49 million in San Mateo, 2.2 percent to $666,300 in Contra Costa, and 3.6 percent to $1.59 million in San Francisco. Data for Marin and Napa counties was not available for April, according to Zillow.

But buyers and sellers have remained cautious amid health risks. The volume of single-family home sales in Bay Area counties plummeted 21.4 percent in Santa Clara, 27.6 percent in Alameda, 10.7 percent in Contra Costa, and 22.9 percent in San Mateo from the previous year, according to Zillow. Single-family home sales in San Francisco were nearly cut in half.

The U.S. home market has been supported through the crisis by record-low interest rates. The rate for a standard, 30-year-fixed mortgage fell to 3.13 percent last month, according to Freddie Mac. The median price of a single-family home sold in the U.S. in April rose 4.3 percent from last year, according to Zillow.

Bay Area real estate agents say they’re surprised the market has sustained high prices through the lockdown. Local counties and the state have restricted home showings and real estate transactions since mid-March. Agents have gradually been allowed to show homes; at first, only vacant units but now buyers can tour occupied homes as long as residents are not present. Only two visitors may enter a home for sale with an agent at one time. Social distancing, masks and appropriate cleaning procedures are required. Open houses are still banned.

Many agents have turned to digital solutions, adding virtual 3-D tours to online listings and conducting video conferences with prospective buyers and sellers.

In some cities, the few homes that reached the market sold in just days, similar to the white hot trading of three years ago. Many cities in Contra Costa and Alameda counties saw houses sell weeks faster than in spring the previous year, according to data from Bay East Association of Realtors. Homes in Union City and Moraga spent an average of just 7 days on the market and 9 days in San Leandro. Houses in Hayward last April typically took 36 days to sell; this year, sales took just 11 days.

“It’s remarkable how much demand there is,” said David Stark of the Bay East Association of Realtors said. “People still want to buy houses.”

Los Gatos agent Mary Kay Groth said sellers have been weighing the risks of putting their homes on the market. Some agents have been vetting buyers to ensure only qualified and serious buyers make in-house visits, she said. In some cases, she said, “the process has been somewhat laborious.”

Burlingame agent Caroline Dinsmore said she’s been out on appointments nearly every day.

Buyers are still looking for turn-key homes in good school districts, she said. The pandemic has made it even more difficult for two-career families to take on fixer-upper projects — in addition to home schooling, working remotely, and managing a move, she said.

Homes in the $1.7 to $2.5 million range, in reach of two-income tech professional couples, remain popular, Dinsmore said. Buyers and sellers have mostly adjusted to the new restrictions, and she’s seen activity pick up in recent weeks. Dinsmore expects the typically busy spring buying season to be pushed into the summer this year.

“Now,” she said, “is a really weird time.”

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Article source: https://www.mercurynews.com/coronavirus-lockdowns-no-match-for-bay-area-home-buyers

The Bay Area is still one of the most expensive places to live, but rents are falling fast.

It’s a sudden turn downward in the market because people are leaving due to the high costs and their employers letting them work from home.

“All things are pointing to us having to leave the Bay Area, said Matt Moore, who currently rents an apartment in Concord.

Making It In The Bay

NBC Bay Area’s daily, in-depth commitment to exploring and finding solutions to the Bay Area’s housing crisis and other quality of life issues.

Moore’s apartment is too small to be an office and said it is also getting too expensive.

“For what we pay for this tiny apartment, I can get a four or five bedroom house in Sacramento, with almost 2,000 square feet,” Moore said.

Rents in the Bay Area are falling fast with many people moving out of the region.

San Francisco rent tracker Zumper said the average rent in the city is down 5% from this time last year, with steeper drops along the Peninsula and a 15% drop in Cupertino.

Article source: https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/making-it-in-the-bay/bay-area-still-pricey-but-rents-are-starting-to-drop/2308017/

• Wealthy San Francisco homebuyers are leaving the dense city for the sweeping hills of the wine country and other affluent pockets of the Bay Area, according to a new Bloomberg report.
• Real estate agents are seeing a spike in demand — one $10.85 million Napa Valley estate sold just hours after a buyer toured it.
• The COVID-19 pandemic has made many city dwellers question their place in such urban environments.
• And as tech companies continue to embrace work-from-home policies, it may not be as necessary to be physically located near corporate offices.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic started making many people question their place in major cities, research has suggested that residents in the pricey San Francisco Bay Area are considering flocking elsewhere.

And a new Bloomberg report found that they’re not going far — wealthy homeowners in the city by the Bay are looking to affluent, more suburban-like pockets throughout the region.

And they’re not just seeking temporary refuge — they’re hunting down real estate, and some agents are saying they’ve never seen such demand, or the ensuing bidding wars.

As Sotheby’s real estate agent Ginger Martin told Bloomberg, “There’s a mad rush to get out of the city. What I’m really doing well with right now is anything that’s turnkey.”

The wine country, which includes Sonoma and Napa Valleys, is especially seeing a “brisk season” — a buyer purchased a $10.85 million Napa estate just hours after touring it.

Marin County just north of San Francisco is also seeing an uptick in interest. “I’ve never seen the demand higher for Marin County real estate than when COVID-19 hit,” Sotheby’s International agent Josh Burns told Bloomberg.

San Francisco is known for its expensive housing market — the average price for a home in the city is nearly $1.5 million, according to Zillow. Prices have skyrocketed as people have flocked to the region in recent years, driving up demand in a place where supply is low.

Those who can afford to buy a home in San Francisco can certainly afford not only to relocate elsewhere, but also to delve into other housing markets.

That’s a trend taking place on the East Coast as well, as Business Insider’s Katie Warren reports. New Yorkers are snatching up suburban homes that had been sitting on the market for hundreds of days in the state’s Hudson Valley and Catskills regions, and in Connecticut.

Many San Francisco residents have the lucrative tech industry to thank for their wealth. And as tech firms continue to embrace remote work, being physically located near corporate offices may not be necessary. Twitter, based in San Francisco’s mid-Market district, told workers in mid-May they could continue working from home even after the lockdowns are lifted, if they so choose. Others companies such as Google and Facebook have told employees that they can keep working remotely through the fall, even if offices reopen sooner.

Rent in the San Francisco Bay Area plummeted in May, with San Francisco alone seeing a 9.2% dip year-over-year, signaling that an exodus may indeed be beginning.

But as Bloomberg notes, doing so is only a luxury for those with the means. An income inequality gap has long existed in the region, and many residents have been priced out or pushed to the edge as the cost of living has increased.

Article source: https://www.businessinsider.com/wealthy-san-francisco-residents-relocate-wine-country-remote-work-2020-6