San Francisco Real Estate - Residential

San Francisco Real Estate Market Update for 8/7 - 8/13/06

Avram Goldman, President and COO of Coldwell Banker, San Francisco Bay Area said in his latest weekly report:

"It’s that same old song----buyers are slow to write and sellers are still looking for reality. As our Sebastopol manager put it, buyers have glue in their pockets and sellers have sugar plums on their minds. A bit emphatic, but probably not too far from the truth in Sonoma county. For the most part open house activity is still decent and in some cases still quite active as evidenced by the 100 groups that came through a new Millbrae listing. It is still amazing given the current market that a third of our offices had 20% or more multiple offers. Interesting to note is we are seeing a few marketplaces that are experiencing both decreasing listings and sales. This could primarily be due to fewer listings coming on the market at the same time more listings expiring, while sales could be impacted by prime vacation season before children go back to school.

"Nevertheless when buyers see value they move. In Half Moon Bay where the market is beginning to pick up now that Hwy. 1 is open had a $1.4 mil new construction listing that had several offers going over by $400,000. Not the rule, but certainly shows that there are still a number of serious buyers out there. Overall we have seen a slowing this month, although in the past week momentum seems to be building toward the Fall market.

"Price reductions do motivate buyers as seen by several listings that have been on for some time receiving multiple offers, however sales prices still went below the new list price. Merchandising is still the name of the game. Houses still need to be presented in their best light, this includes “reality pricing”, staging and dealing with any deferred maintenance.

"A recent report in the newspaper said that this July was the slowest July in 10 years. That would put it at the 1996 market. As I recall 1996 was a nicely balanced market. Both consumers and the real estate industry have been indulged by a very active market and accelerating appreciation over the last 10 years. Now we are back to a regular real estate market.

"The numbers for the week of August 7th-13th are as follows: 4 offices showed increasing listing inventories, 14 steady and 10 decreasing----6 offices reported increasing sales, 15 steady and 9 declining."

- Avram Goldman

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posted by SFResidence.com @ 9:11 PM