South of Market, Mission Bay, South Beach, Yerba Buena
Below are charts for a handful of leading market indicators that update in real time, sourced directly from the San Francisco MLS. Scroll down to see the supply and demand trends measured by inventory, new listings, days on market and final selling prices.
Active Listings on the Market
The number of listings on the market at any given time is determined by 3 big factors: seasonality, buyer demand and the motivation of prospective sellers to sell. In the 5-year line chart, one can see the huge decline in listings available to purchase at any given time over the past 4 years. Note that many of the bigger new condo projects do not list their condos on MLS and thus will not show up in the chart below.
This basic measure of market activity depends upon both buyer demand and the number of listings available to purchase. Above and beyond seasonality, a big surge in condo listings accepting offers may indicate that a new development came on market during that period. On the other hand, if a big development came on market off-MLS, i.e. didn’t list the condos on MLS, then the chart below might not reflect a large quantity of properties going under contract – for example, the Lumina project in South Beach accepted hundreds offers Q4 2014 – Q1 2015, but they won’t show up below.
6-month rolling averages
Median sales price is that price at which half the sales occurred for more and half for less. It typically conceals a large variety of different prices in the underlying individual sales, and can also be affected by other factors besides changes in home values, such as seasonality and large changes in the distressed, luxury-home or new-construction segments of the market.
This statistic is based upon interior living space and doesn’t include garages, storage rooms, decks or patios. Typically, square footage figures come from appraisals or tax records, but square footage can be measured in different ways and the figures can be unreliable. These values should be considered very general statistical approximations.
Large percentages of sales in which the price is bid up above asking price usually signifies spirited buyer competition for new listings. Before 2012, this percentage typically ran between 30% and 40% of sales. It has climbed to new heights in recent years. This is another statistic that is affected by seasonality: Higher percentages in spring and autumn, lower during the summer and winter holidays.
This statistic measures the percentage of list price achieved in the sales price. The higher the percentage the greater the competitive demand.
Under 30 days is considered a fast moving market. Below 20 days reflects extremely high buyer demand for new listings. This figure would be even lower except that many San Francisco agents prefer to show their listings for at least 10 to 14 days before the seller even reviews offers, so as to fully expose the home to as many prospective buyers as possible and thus maximize the potential of a bidding war.
MSI measures how long it would take to sell the existing inventory of listings for sale at current rates of market activity. Typically, under 3 months of inventory is considered a seller’s market; 2 months or less signify a very strong seller’s market: buyers snapping up new listings very quickly.