Bay Area Home Sales Slip to 9-Year Low
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) -- A new report shows home sales in the Bay Area have dipped to a 9-year low.
The data released from CoreLogic reports a total of 7,247 new and existing houses and condominiums were sold in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, Santa Clara, San Francisco, San Mateo, Solano and Sonoma counties in August 2019. In August 2010, at the zenith of the great recession, 6,698 homes were sold in the Bay Area.
"Although Bay Area home sales in August fell nearly 6% from a year earlier, the recent drop in mortgage rates likely helped temper that decline," said Andrew LePage, a CoreLogic analyst.
"From March through August this year, when mortgage rates trended lower, home sales fell about 7% compared with that same six-month period last year. In the second half of 2018, when mortgage rates climbed, home sales fell nearly 12% compared with the second half of 2017."
"All prices have to get capped at some point and there will be winners and losers," said Karen Kircher of San Francisco. "As a renter then I'll be a winner," she added.
READ MORE: Bay Area Supercommuters Drive Stockton Rent Increases to 2nd-Highest in Nation
The report also said the median sale price for a home in the Bay Area is $810,000. A year ago it was $830,000. That is a drop of 2.4%.
San Francisco bucks the trend. The median sale price in the city is $1.35 million. A year ago it was $1.31 million, an increase of 2.9%.
"I don't see any indication that the market is on the precipice of a big downturn," said Mary MacPherson of Compass Real Estate.
"We all wonder, 'is this going to be the beginning of the end, the beginning of a cooling?' I really don't think so. We only have a couple hundred more listings right now active than we normally have on the market. And we always have at least 2,000 buyers active in the market at any given time. We have about 900 active listings. That's still not enough to meet our supply and demand issue. So no, I don't think so. By next year, who knows?"
