Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Anecdotes do not a trend make, but ....

Several items in the news and my own experience as an agent converged today that says a good deal about the current housing market and, maybe more importantly, the mindset of potential buyers:

  1. The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes rose again in January, the third time in the last four months.  This is entirely consistent with what we've been reporting for a while regarding our local San Francisco market where sales of existing homes in 2011 rose compared to the previous year and was the third year in a row of sales increases.
  2. The San Francisco Chronicle reported in it's "On the Block" blog that there has been a recent spate of sales in the peninsula communities of Palo Alto, Menlo Park and others where buyers, often in multiple offer situations, are paying all cash and waiving contingencies!
  3. Working with several buyers recently we've experienced first hand several properties we had some interest in go into contract within a few days of hitting the market.  And there we have begun to see the return of offer dates on listings.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Sales Rates

Here's some interesting statistics that give some clues about the state of the San Francisco real estate market.
First, for the full year 2011, the number of residential sales increased again for the third year in a row. 


More properties (single family homes, condos, TICs and co-ops) were sold last year than any year since 2007.

Sales for January, 2012, also showed strength:


Although slightly fewer sold this January than January, 2011, overall the trend is positive since the low of downward trend that started after 2007.