Coronavirus Update: High-Priced Real Estate Listings Returning To San Francisco Bay Area Market
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- A thaw is beginning to take place in the deep chill cast over the San Francisco Bay Area real estate market by the outbreak of the coronavirus, according to a survey released by the real estate website Zillow.
According to the new Zillow numbers, there were 12.4% more expensive listings and 13.3% more affordable listings last week than the week before in San Francisco.
And while the number of new listings overall was still down 37.1% from a year ago, they were up 18.3% from the previous week. Also there was some good news for potential buyers -- the median list price was $904,188, down 0.9% from last year.
Meanwhile in San Jose, the survey found that new listings of the most-expensive homes were down 16.2% year over year, and new listings of the most-affordable homes are down 24.5%. But from the week before, there were 76.7% more expensive listings and 25.1% more affordable listings last week.
The number of new listings overall was down 39.1% from a year ago, but up 13% from the previous week. However, the virus has not thrown a chill over the price of new home. The survey found the median list price was $1,167,354, up 1.9% from last year.
"Sellers with higher-priced homes, who often have more flexibility in their decision, appear to have held back at first to wait out the uncertainty, and are now coming back into the market with signs of increased buyer demand," Zillow said in a news release.
The survey portrays a much different market than just four weeks ago when Patrick Carlisle, Chief Market Analyst for Compass Real Estate, published his numbers.
"I mean, who wants to move now? Nobody," said Carlisle at the time. "The number of properties that were pulled off the market jumped by 800% in one week. The number of properties going into contract dropped like 75% so these are very drastic effects."
Realtor.com reported in mid-April that there were nearly half as many listings on the market as there were at a similar point in 2019. In the Bay Area, there were roughly 9,500 active listings in early March since shelter-in-place took effect; that number dropped below 8,000 and the number of new listings went from around 1,800 to less than 800.
Carlisle's research showed a typical spring season like 2019, where real estate comes out of its winter slump, but this March he says most people were either afraid to list, or don't have the money to buy.
"People have to have jobs to be able to afford to buy homes or to rent homes," Carlisle said.
