San Francisco Real Estate - Residential

U.S. existing-home sales prices fall for first time in 11 years

This weekend's news was all about lagging housing sales. MarketWatch is reporting, "U.S. existing-home sales prices fall for first time in 11 years." It was also on the radio this morning as well as the Sunday evening news yesterday! So it must be true.

We went back and put together statistics for each month for all the years we had on file and are currently collecting data that we do not have for as many years as we can. The San Francisco MLS only has statistics going back to 2000 or so when the system was switched over. Historical information earlier than that is not available at this time.

What we found was that the San Francisco real estate market slowdown really became apparent in January of 2006. As for the assertion from the media making comparisons to August reaching an 11 year low... this is typically a vacation time and is slow EVERY year at this time. Look at the numbers. Here are our monthly comparisons:

1. January
2. February
3. March
4. April
5. May
6. June
7. July
8. August
9. September
10. October
11. November
12. December

As you can see from the numbers we, indeed, have been off. However, let's see what September statistics report since the Fed has frozen rate hikes for the moment. What we are seeing in the marketplace is very encouraging!

- Mick Orton

posted by SFResidence.com @ 10:20 AM