March 2014 Report

Upward pressure on home prices is based on one basic dynamic: more demand than there is supply to satisfy it. Various factors can supercharge demand, such as extremely high rents and low interest rates, which make homeownership more attractive, as well as a sudden, large influx of new, affluent buyers (our high-tech boom) piling into what is basically a relatively small, inventory-constrained market. When there are 5, 10 or sometimes 20 qualified buyers chasing after every attractive, reasonably priced, new listing, prices typically go up, sometimes quite quickly.

Last year, after the spring feeding frenzy, the market generally stabilized through the end of the year: It continued to be a strong market by any measure, but prices mostly plateaued, albeit often at new peak levels. We recently speculated on tentative signs that suggested a further market normalization, but now the indicators are pointing in a different direction. The inventory of homes available to purchase on any given day is even lower than before last year’s furious market; buyer demand has emerged from its midwinter hibernation like a hungry bear; and prices are under increasing pressure once again.

The spring selling seasons of 2012 and 2013 saw huge spikes in home price appreciation. Now we enter the third spring since our market recovery began in earnest, and the desire to live in our small, beautiful, expensive city continues unabated. We shall see how it plays out in the coming months.

Median Sales Prices: Heading Up Again
There is an aspect of seasonality to median home prices – typically up in spring, down in summer, up in autumn, down during the holidays — which explains some of the fluctuations seen on this chart, though the upward trend since 2012 began is very clear. It’s common for median prices to fall in January and February: This reflects offers accepted during the holiday season, when the higher end of the market often checks out. But not in 2014: median sales prices for houses and especially condos jumped dramatically in the past two months, which may suggest another white-hot spring market. Note that median sales prices are often affected by other factors besides changes in values, such as inventory, and longer term trends are much more meaningful than short term fluctuations.

This link below illustrates the longer-term trend in median sales prices in San Francisco for houses, condos and TICs, by year since 1993:
Longer Term Trends

3-Bedroom House Values by Neighborhood
This is one of 8 updated tables on San Francisco home values by median and average sales price, and average dollar per square foot. The full analysis looks at houses, condos and TICs by neighborhood and number of bedrooms throughout the city and can be found via this link below. All general statistics typically disguise a huge variety of values in the underlying individual sales, but can give a good idea of comparative home values.
Full Report

 

 

2-Bedroom Condo Values
2-bedroom condo values by median and average sales price, and average dollar per square foot, sorted by neighborhood. Again, the full report can be found here:
Full Report

 

 

 

Sales Price over Asking Price: A Sudden Spike
Last month, we pointed to the decline in the percentage of sales price over list price for homes selling without price reductions in December and January as a possible indication of a cooling market. February completely reversed that trend (though one should never make too much of one month’s data).

Home Values around the Bay Area
This map illustrates overall median sales prices for houses in cities all over the Bay Area. In San Francisco, median prices by neighborhood can vary from under $500,000 to over $4,000,000; other cities will often display a similarly wide range of home prices in different neighborhoods.

 

 

 

 

Sales by Property Type: Condos Up, TICs Down
As shown in this first chart, condo sales now outnumber house sales, a trend that will only continue to accelerate as new condo developments are built. Very few new houses are built in San Francisco and they generally simply replace older homes.

This link illustrates the decline in sales for TICs and 2-4 unit buildings, which is occurring due to a variety of factors, including financing issues, rental units converting to TICs, TIC units converting to condos, and complex tenants’ rights and eviction issues.
TIC & 2-4 Unit Building Sales

Case-Shiller Price Trends by Price Segment since 2000
All numbers relate to a January 2000 value of 100: A reading of 182 signifies a home value 82% above that of January 2000. These 3 charts illustrate how different market segments in the 5-county SF metro area had bubbles, crashes and now recoveries of enormously different magnitudes, mostly depending on the impact of subprime lending. The lower the price range, the bigger the bubble and crash. The upper third of sales by price range (far right chart) was affected least by the subprime fiasco and has now basically recovered peak values of 2006-2007. In the city itself, where many of our home sales would constitute an ultra-high price segment, if Case-Shiller broke it out, many of our neighborhoods have risen to new peak values. The lowest price segment (far left chart), more prevalent in other counties, may not recover peak values for years. If one disregarded the different bubbles and crashes, home price appreciation for all three segments since January 2000 is almost exactly the same, in the range of 75% to 82%.

A more detailed report on the Case-Shiller Home Price Index can be found here:
Case-Shiller Index Report

The real estate market recovery started in earnest in 2012 and then went white hot in spring 2013, which resulted in a huge jump in home prices. In the last six months of the year, the market calmed somewhat and prices generally stabilized, but buyer demand remained very strong by historical standards. Economic conditions have continued to improve, household net worth has increased dramatically with rising stock and housing markets, rents remain very high, new construction is soaring and interest rates, after jumping in 2013, are still relatively low. Though it is impossible to predict the future, these factors typically form the foundation of a healthy, active housing market.

In the next few weeks, new listings will start coming on market, buyers will get back in home-search mode and the market will begin to wake up after the holiday hibernation. Then we’ll start to get an inkling of what the new year has in store.

If you missed our survey of what San Francisco homebuyers bought in 2013, you can find it here: 2013 Market Survey. It was reported on by SFGate, KGO Radio and other major media.

This first chart above gives a longer-term overview of city, state and national real estate price trends. Though varying by neighborhood, San Francisco has generally made a complete recovery from the market decline suffered in 2007-2011. Some city neighborhoods surged to new peak values in 2013.

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This chart below tracks San Francisco median prices by quarter, illustrating how the rebound in values progressed in steps since the recovery began.

And below, home value changes for Bay Area higher priced homes are charted over the past 2 years according to the S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index.

Total Home Sales by Year (below).

The quantity of sales in the past two years has been severely constrained by an inadequacy of inventory to meet demand. This, of course, is also a major factor behind price increases.

San Francisco Luxury Home Market

A major component of the recent recovery has been the terrific resurgence in luxury home sales. There are 3 main factors involved: firstly, the affluent have benefited most from the big surge in financial markets, which makes them feel even more affluent; secondly, our local high-tech boom has minted a large number of newly wealthy homebuyers; and finally, the simple increase in prices moves a certain number of home sales into the price categories we typically define as luxury ($1.5m and over for condos, co-ops and TICs; $2m and above for houses).

Home Price Appreciation by Selected Neighborhoods

This chart measures increases in median home prices over the past two years for a number of SF neighborhoods. Median price changes are not exact correlations of value changes, but give an approximate range of appreciation, in this case, about 25% to 30%. Distressed home sales were not included in this analysis as they typically do NOT reflect fair market value; if they had been included, several of these neighborhoods would show much greater percentage price increases since 2011.

And this chart below looks at median sales price appreciation in a few higher priced home segments. Here, we also added the change in dollar per square foot values (though not reflected in the chart columns). Note that appreciation rates between median prices and dollar per square foot can vary in the same neighborhood, which emphasizes that these are general statistics best used for indicating trends and delineating the range of value changes.

2013: Peak & Plateau

This chart is a bit complicated, but illustrates the differences in the heat of the market between 2011 and 2013, and, specifically, the peak of the market frenzy in the second quarter of 2013. In the second quarter, almost every statistical measure reflected the hottest market in recent memory: fewest price reductions and expired listings, lowest days on market, highest percentage of sales over list price, lowest interest rates in history, and so on. In the two quarters after, the market slowed and plateaued, but remained quite strong – as one can see by comparing them with 2011.

Selected 2013 Neighborhood & District Snapshots

South Beach-SoMa-Yerba Buena-Mission Bay

Above is a look at the biggest condo market segment in the city, where the vast majority of new condo construction has occurred and is continuing to occur. Condos of every price range are found here, including a very substantial ultra-luxury component with extremely high dollar per square foot values (and typically with utterly spectacular views).

Potrero Hill, Bernal Heights and Inner Mission markets

Noe-Eureka-Cole Valleys District Snapshot

An overview of house, condo and TIC sales in this very hot central district of the city.

Pacific & Presidio Heights, Cow Hollow and Marina

The highest house prices in the Bay Area.

Russian, Nob & Telegraph Hills

Some of the most expensive condos in San Francisco are located in this district.

Mortgage Interest Rates

2014 started with a 30-year conforming interest rate of 4.5%, which is about a full percentage point above the historic lows one year ago. This affects the cost of homeownership significantly (if one is getting a loan), but the rate is still quite low in the context of the past 30 years.

Government Shutdown & Default Fears Affect SF Homes Market

Paragon Real Estate Report, November 2013

The number of home listings accepting offers was way down in October (when it usually goes up); months-supply-of-inventory was significantly up (when it usually goes down in October); average days on market were still very low; median sales price was generally stable: The San Francisco real estate market is currently delivering a wide variety of signals, some of them undoubtedly influenced by the U.S. government shutdown fiasco, which dominated the first 3 weeks of last month.

Percentage of Listings Accepting Offers
October is usually one of the busiest months of the year for buyers purchasing new homes – as measured by having their offers accepted – as they react to the surge of new listings that typically arrives after Labor Day. But the government shutdown and the threat of U.S. default hammered October’s activity as SF buyers nervously waited to see how it was going to shake out. Surveys show that the affluent were the group most concerned about a possible default – and SF is a very affluent home-buying market. In this chart, the plunge in the percentage of listings accepting offers is well illustrated; and on a unit basis, the number of homes accepting offers dropped by about 20% year over year, a big decline. Closed sales were actually up about 7%, but October closings reflect accepted offer activity in August/ September before the shutdown crisis began. It is too early to tell if there is more going on in the market besides the temporary reaction to default fears.

This chart on Months Supply of Inventory shows a similarly unusual trend for October: MSI going up from September instead of down. Though it’s well up from recent months, it’s still low by market standards.
Months Supply of Inventory

Average Days on Market
Although many fewer listings went into contract (i.e. accepted offers) in October compared to last year, those homes that did accept offers did so, on average, very quickly. That, of course, is usually an indication of a hot market. So buyers didn’t snap up as many listings – either as a percentage of listings or in units – but the ones they did, were snapped up very quickly. Sometimes different statistics appear to indicate different trends on a short-term basis; such anomalies are almost always resolved over a longer term.

Case-Shiller Home Price Index
The last Case-Shiller Index reading – for the 5-county “SF Metro Area” – came out in late October for the month of August, and it’s a 3-month moving average, so the Index really reflects the market 3 to 5 months ago. This chart gives an overview of long-term trends in Bay Area values for homes in the upper third of sales by price range (i.e. more expensive homes). If we looked at what was happening month by month in the Index, we’d see a gradual plateauing of price appreciation of higher-priced homes over the past few months after the furious increases of spring. Home values in the city of San Francisco itself (as opposed to the Metro Area) are now generally above the previous peak values in 2006-2008.
Paragon Case-Shiller Report

Median Sales Price Appreciation
This chart tracks SF home median price appreciation since the market recovery began in earnest. The overall trend has been dramatically up, but median prices for the last 5 months have been relatively flat after the springtime spike. If the October slowdown in accepted offers had any effect on median prices, it won’t show up until November and December closed sales are tallied. The market has certainly shifted from the frenzy of the first half of the year, but, except for October (affected by default fears), statistical measures of supply and demand have generally continued to show a strong market by historical measures. If a significant shift is occurring in the market, it will become clearer in the statistics of upcoming months. Note that median price changes are not perfectly correlated to changes in home value, as they can be affected by issues such as seasonality and inventory.

Mortgage Interest Rates
In good news for buyers and sellers, 30-year interest rates have been dropping and are now at their lowest since June (though still above the historic low reached earlier in the year).

 

 

 

Home Values around the Bay Area
We just updated our Bay Area Home Value map, which provides an interesting look at comparative home prices around the bay. Remember that each median price delineated for a particular city disguises a huge variety of prices in the underlying sales. For example, in San Francisco, median house sales prices by neighborhood vary from under $500,000 to over $4,000,000. Other towns and cities will have a similarly wide range in property values underlying their overall median sales prices.
San Francisco Neighborhood Values