With the number of newly proposed units of housing to be built in San Francisco having outpaced the number of units that recently finished up construction for the third quarter in a row, the overall pipeline of apartments and condos under development in San Francisco increased by 1,800 in the second quarter of 2018 to a record 69,600, which is 6,100 more than at the same time last year.
And for the second quarter in a row, the number of units in approved developments which have already broken ground and should be ready for occupancy within the next year or two has increased, from 6,750 in the first quarter to 7,100 at the end of June, which is 19 percent below a current cycle peak of 8,800 set in the third quarter of 2015 but nearly 25 percent above average over the past ten years.
In addition, there are now 15,800 net-new units of housing for which building permits have either been issued, approved or requested, which is 500 more than the quarter before, along 30,100 units in projects that have already been approved but not yet permitted (which includes the majority of the 10,500 units by Candlestick, 7,800 units on Treasure Island and 5,680 units at Parkmerced, projects which have overall timelines measured in decades, not years).
And with proposals for another 16,650 units of housing now under review by the City’s Planning Department, which is up from 15,200 the quarter before and bolstered by the anticipated passage of San Francisco’s proposed Central SoMa Plan, San Francisco’s Housing Pipeline now totals a record 69,600, including 11,750 units of “affordable housing” which are to be offered at below market rates, according to our latest accounting of Planning’s database as newly mapped with more detail above.
At the same time, the growth rate of employed residents in the city has slowed, asking rents have slipped, the inventory of homes for sale in the city has been trending up, and home sales have dropped to a 7-year seasonal low.