After a sleepy summer, the San Francisco real estate market has kicked off in earnest yet again. September is traditionally the city’s busiest month for new listings, and this year is no exception, with 300 homes for sale hitting the market in the first week after Labor Day. These seasonal changes are typical of the city, but this year the summer slowdown was even more extreme than usual, with 12 percent fewer new listings and 16 percent fewer sales than in summer 2013, reflecting the general lack of inventory that has been plaguing San Francisco. During the summer months, homes were on the market for a median time of only 22 days and sold for a median price of $1.025 million. There was only a 1.5-month supply of inventory in the city—compared with a 5.5-month supply nationally—signaling a strong seller’s market.
Summer saw a dip in the monthly median sales price, from a $1.07 million high in June down to just $958K, in August but this slide is likely more a result of the subdued summer activity than any meaningful slide in prices. Over the past six months, more houses and condos have sold in the $1 million to $1.49 million range than in any other price bracket. Now that the fall season has begun, the market’s overall direction should become clearer, and we’ll see if the boom that has pushed prices to record levels over the past two years has staying power.