Home prices are rising across the Bay Area as inventory falls to its lowest level in decades and sales fall to levels last seen in 2008, according to a new Compass report.
However, the three-month rolling median home price average increased in all 11 counties Still below last spring’s peak prices, according to reports. In San Mateo County, the median home price is nearly $2 million, the highest in the Bay Area. The peninsula’s median price was $1.7 million in January, $1.85 million in March and $1.93 in May.
Home prices rose in San Francisco, but not as much as in wealthier suburbs, from $1.5 million in January to $1.63 million in May. In Marin, the median price has risen by more than $200,000 since January to just under $1.8 million, and Santa Clara has seen a similar increase, with the median now at $1.73 million.
Luxury home sales in the Bay Area have also picked up this year, according to Compass data. Sales rebound in high-priced neighborhoods The likes of Atherton and Hillsborough may contribute to the overall price increase in San Mateo. So far this year, San Mateo has 70 sales over $5 million, the most in the Bay Area, followed by Santa Clara with 62. That’s twice as many as third-ranked San Francisco, which has 31, seven of which are op-ops or condominiums.
The city’s condo market remains subdued compared with last year, but the rolling six-month median price for condos outside downtown is above $1.2 million, a slight improvement since the start of the year. Downtown condo prices continue to fall, with the current median price around $900,000, the last time prices were seen in 2017. Older apartments in attractive buildings outside the city center are more attractive to buyers, and in fewer numbers, according to Compass chief market analyst Patrick Carlisle, who wrote the report.
“Condo market conditions in San Francisco are very different now in the greater Downtown/South of Market/Civic Center area, which has been the center of large new construction projects (and high-tech jobs) over the past three decades, and in other parts of the city Typically characterized by less urbanized neighborhoods with smaller, older buildings (often classic, beautiful Victorian, Edwardian, Art Deco or Spanish),” he wrote in his analysis.
Carlyle pointed out, Inventory down this year Bringing the number of new listings to its lowest point in more than 20 years, which is as far as his numbers go. Judging from the 12-month rolling data, there were less than 80,000 new listings in the 11 counties of the Bay Area this spring, compared with a recent high of more than 100,000 in mid-2021 and a record high of 180,000 in 2007. That followed, falling to its lowest level since 2008, when the fallout from the financial crisis slowed the pace of closures. Less than 60,000 units were sold this spring, compared with more than 90,000 during the peak of the pandemic in mid-2021.
In his analysis, Carlisle said the decline in listings “is often attributed to the ‘mortgage lock-in effect'” and is one reason for lower sales as well as “changes in macroeconomic conditions such as interest rates, consumer confidence and the stock market.”
