How’s the San Francisco real estate market?
Are prices going up or down? Staying the same? How does this year look compared to last year?
Check out this chart of single family home sales, comparing this April to last April.
There are many interesting items of note but let’s focus on the District 9 statistics.
What is District 9, you ask? It consists of Bernal Heights, Potrero Hill, Soma, South Beach, Mission Bay, the Waterfront (dogpatch).
Prices are down 6% from this time last year. However, the number of sales (i.e. the number of folks buying a home) is down 32%.
To me, this is the fascinating part. Certainly, there are a lot of ways to look at this… We’ve had a liquidity crisis whereby a lot of potential home buyers can no longer get loans. We’ve had a crisis of confidence whereby a lot of would be sellers and buyers are fence-sitting until things are more certain… and so on.
But, and this is an important but…if I were a potential home buyer who remains qualified to buy, I might look at this and think, “Wow, prices are down 6% on average but interest rates remain awesome. Maybe I could get a deal and get into a great home in say, Bernal Heights?”
Wouldn’t that be the cat’s meow?
Regardless of what you think, whether you agree or not, please just think outside the box and take everything, the media, me, with some perspective.
By the time the Chronicle announces a rebound in housing, it will be too late to cash in on this historic moment.
The 2nd loan market will return and with it so will the many, many home buyers with 5 or 10% down payment. Plus, more of us will be aware of and comfortable with the new FHA loans. These new FHA loans make a Bernal Heights home doable with as little as 3–5% down!!!
We’re helping buyers with one right now.
Okay, enough of my rant. It’s hot and I want to go out for happy hour! No, it hasn’t begun yet for me.
The stats are below. Enjoy. Comment.
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