3rd Quarter Home Sales

3rd Quarter Home Sales Snapshot

These statistics for the third quarter indicate a market that is still extraordinarily strong by any historical measure: 87% of home sales sold quickly without price reductions, at an average of almost 8% over asking price. It did cool down somewhat from our insanely frenzied spring season, but part of that is explained by the typical summer slowdown dynamic. How the market performs in the next two months will tell us a lot about whether the market is settling down, transitioning to a new phase or continuing to race along in high gear.

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San Francisco Median Home Sales Prices It’s not unusual for median prices to fall in the first and third quarters (affected by winter and summer holidays) and rise in the second and fourth quarters (prime spring and autumn selling seasons). This is what happened in this past third quarter and it typically has more to do with seasonal factors than changes in market values. One has to look at the longer term trend, not monthly or quarterly fluctuations, to determine what’s really happening in the market. For the last 6 quarters, the overall trend in home prices has been upward. For median price by district, visit our interactive map.

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Inventory of Homes for Sale The inventory of active homes for sale gives an idea of the choices a homebuyer has on any given day. September did see a spike in the number of new listings, but it wasn’t anywhere as big as we had hoped for.

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Months Supply of Inventory (MSI) MSI did climb in September due to the increase in the number of new listings — which is typical for September. Usually, MSI drops again in October as buyers snap up those new listings. Even with the increase, the reading signifies a strong “sellers’ market.”