Welcome to the Fall real estate season in San Francisco, when the clock ticks down to the holidays and the serious buyers and sellers break away from the pack. And for that reason, Fall is my favorite time to sell real estate. You either get it done, or you don’t.
Buyers who have been feeling out the market and hoping for a price correction throughout 2015 will decide once and for all whether a new home or investment is in the cards for them this year. And sellers listing their houses in September and October have the better part of a year’s worth of data to help them decide whether they’re comfortable with the true selling range of their homes.
It’s a good time to recap what happened over the summer in the single-family home and condo markets, because June-August comps will influence how much buyers are willing to pay in the Fall.
Single-Family Homes: Prices Up 15%
The average price for a house sold from June-August 2015 was $1,656,488—up 15% from last summer. Volume was roughly the same, with 637 homes selling this summer.
Cash purchases represented almost a quarter of all sales, and 21.% of homes sold were in the $2M+ range.
Thirty houses sold without being marketed through the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), and five of those homes were tenant occupied. My favorite off-market property sold was this one:
That would be 2701 Lincoln in the Central Sunset, a home that had been in the same family for many years and needed updating. But the original woodwork was well preserved and the house had a real presence. The property was listed for $2.8M and sold for $3M.
Condos: Volume Down, Prices Up
The summer saw a downturn in volume in the condo market, with 9% less units changing hands than last summer. But the average condo price was $1,206,233, a 7% jump. Buyers paid an average of $1,016 per square foot.
Similar to the single-family home market, almost a quarter of all sales were paid for in cash. Only 7% of all sales were in the $2M+ range, though.
On the off-market front, 52 condos were sold, with more than half in the $1M+ range. Four were tenant occupied.
The most expensive condo sold this summer was a 2BR/2.5BA unit at the Millennium for $7.5M.