Last week I received an email from a friend and fellow REALTOR who works the San Francisco market. This agent’s name is Cece Blase and she created and writes for the blog, SF Real Estate Buzz.com.
Cece’s email was a sort of year end wrap up of San Francisco’s housing market. That market is occasionally brought up on this blog, so I thought I’d share some of Cece’s charts and commentary.
If you have more questions about the SF market or are in need of a real estate agent there give Cece a call. She can be reached at:
Cece Blase
Paragon Real Estate Group
San Francisco
415 577 0809
www.sfrealestatebuzz.com
Here’s some exceprts from Cece’s latest market report (click on the charts to enlarge):
As the number of sales have declined, the average days on market, the number of price reductions, and the number of listings withdrawn from the market without selling rose dramatically — all are signs of sellers and/or listing agents not wanting to recognize new pricing realities in the market.
Still, the luxury home market in San Francisco is very much alive, and of those homes that did sell in 2009, 35% – 40% accepted offers within 30 days of going on market, and on average closed within 3% – 4% of the original asking price. The demand isn’t as frantic as it was in previous years, but there is still strong demand for well priced luxury properties. A fair number is still receiving multiple offers and selling for over asking price. Values appear to have stabilized after their large drop, and may have – it’s too soon to be definitive – started to tick up in the last quarter.
Change in SF Home Sales by Price Range
With the big changes in economic conditions, sales at the lower price ranges have strengthened and those at the higher have weakened. Many first time buyers entered the market in 2009 and they typically purchase less expensive homes. And the foreclosure home market is still predominately a feature of the low end of the market, clustered in the less affluent neighborhoods. Finally, lending conditions and tax credits are mostly geared to the low and mid range home.
Luxury House Sales by Neighborhood
High end houses are typically found in a handful of high prestige neighborhoods, which during the height of the market expanded to the Noe/Castro/Haight area. The northern neighborhoods around Pacific Heights have fared the best in 2009, with barely a budge in overall sales numbers. Other areas saw large declines.
MikeZ
RE: “the luxury home market in San Francisco is very much alive”
When you’re dealing with an unbounded sample, such as $2M+, you can miss or hide a great deal of market weakness by looking just at the sales counts.
A complete picture requires: YoY average and median sale prices within the group, prior sale histories and $/sqft.
When a $5M home sells for $3M a year later, that’s a crumbling luxury market and the market’s weakness will not appear in the data that was provided.
Fogssterr
Well said MikeZ. Kirk Hammett of Metallica just recently sold his mansion in Pac Heights for $8.9 million. There is no more tonier neighborhood in SF than Pac Heights. Lots of old money and lots of new tech and biotech money. However, it took two years on the MLS and a $3 million price drop before it sold. So is this a sign of a strong Pac Heights market, or a declining one?
MikeZ
Thanks, Fogs, for a perfect example.
SkrapGuy
So it appears that nobody came along and “snapped up” Hammett’s mansion, unlike what has been happening with houses in Reno according to the experts at Chase Int’l?
smarten
BTW, the term “Chase International” reminds me of San Jose International Airport. One flight a day to Mexico does not make an airport “international.”