Now that we are solidly in November, and the eggnog is on the shelves, we can take a look back at October and really have a feel for how things were this fall.
In general, it’s been pretty weird. That’s the refrain I continue to hear from my colleagues and what I also feel in my own business and research. Some properties are getting lots of offers and going well over asking while others sit and people begin to wonder what might be wrong with them. I find that a lot of times those properties that sit aren’t necessarily deeply flawed, but it’s more likely that they are getting a stigma because they may have not been perfectly priced out of the gate (which is definitely an art and not a science!).
On the lower end of pricing, a lot of the buyers who were out there needed low percentage down loans and they found that the increase in interest rates has really pushed their monthly payment to an unrealistic range. Many of those buyers are sitting on the fence waiting for prices to come down more, rates to fall, or simply working on beefing up their savings and down payments.
Then there are the buyers who were looking at homes just around $2 million or below. Now their buying power is more in the $1.5 million-and-below range and prices haven’t gone down relative to that buying power. So they are having trouble with compromising their previous “need to haves” and changing them to “nice to haves.” As a result, things are slower, buyers are more discriminating in what they are willing to put an offer on, and sellers are still not bringing properties to market at the same rate they once were.
There’s still a supply problem, so sellers with well priced properties that check a lot of boxes are doing really well. Just look at the sold properties in Glen Park for October. Four of the seven properties sold were sold over asking–one for 146% of asking and the average sales price of those properties is almost $2.8 million. Good news: The rates went down some in the last week!
We’ve got less than two weeks until Thanksgiving when things will slow down even more, with a bump in activity right after that and back to the lull through mid-January. I love finding opportunity in the market through the holidays! That’s when I bought the house I live in now and my last house as well, so I’ll be around and ready for any questions you might have about buying or selling during these interesting times.
Here’s a look at what sold in the month of October:
Here’s a look at what’s currently in contract: 
And lastly, the inventory that is currently available in Glen Park:
Until December! Have a great Thanksgiving…
For more San Francisco sales data, visit: thegoods-sf.com/AmandaMartin/
Amanda Martin