Check out this article that quoted me in the San Francisco Chronicle. Home sales were reported to be up in September, with units being released in new constructions like the Rockwell contributing to that trend.
SF home sales surged in September, thanks to new condos
New-condo construction in San Francisco is causing a surge in home sales, and a moderation in prices.
Rockwell units “have been selling for over a year. Now the buildings are ready and people are moving in, so they are closing contracts they have written ages ago. You are going to see now through the end of the year a lot of sales in that (260-unit) building,” Bauer said.
Year to date, total home and condo sales in San Francisco are up 7.5 percent, but down 2.7 percent in the Bay Area overall.
Most of the sales increase in San Francisco came from new construction, primarily condos. “Single-family detached is down 5.3 percent year-to-date. Resale condos are down 9 percent. New-home sales are up 153.3 percent,” said Andrew LePage, a CoreLogic research analyst.
According to the Mark Co., which tracks condo construction, there were 1,200 units available in San Francisco last month, up 83 percent from the same time last year.
It’s not clear what impact new construction is having on prices, because new-condo contracts are often signed long before closing.
The median price of a home in San Francisco last month was $1,090,000, down 0.9 percent from the previous month but up 3.1 percent from September of last year. However, LePage noted that since hitting an all-time high of $1.3 million in April, the median sales price in San Francisco has declined by $210,000 or 16 percent.
In some areas of the city, primarily South of Market, “you are seeing a slowdown in the market,” Bauer said. “China money has slowed down a bit. I don’t know if the election has anything to do with it.” News that the Millennium Tower is sinking “makes people a little nervous about South of Market,” she added.
For the Bay Area as a whole, the median sales price was $654,000 in September, down 1.7 percent from August but up 3.8 percent from September 2015. Prices normally dip between August and September, but only by 0.7 percent on average going back to 1988, CoreLogic said.
By Kathleen Pender, San Francisco Chronicle columnist.