Another month into the summer season means another month of sales data to look back upon as we continue to monitor the changing market. Overall, we are still seeing the previous trends continue -- generally fewer offers than before, price reductions and longer days-on-market. We feel like we can finally say, after quite some time, that's an easier time to be a buyer. However, that doesn't mean sellers aren't still selling their homes for top dollar, and with ease, when prepared and marketed correctly.
Towards that end, in a market like this one it's important to consider not only the data, but also anecdotes. As we cruise all over Marin and San Francisco each week interacting with other local agents, we pick up plenty of stories to share. For instance, one property in Corte Madera received 14 offers last week. The takeaway here for both buyers and sellers is that the market is certainly not what it was three months ago, but there is still strong buyer activity that happens to be much more property specific.
And remember, it's summertime. We are seeing lots of what we've seen in summers' past with buyers/sellers taking that much needed vacation. This always creates a simmer in the market for a couple months. Nothing new there!
We'll leave you for now with some great reminders in this excerpt from Compass' chief economist Patrick Carlisle's monthly report:
"After one of the longest, most dramatic upcycles in history, the psychology, circumstances and plans of individual buyers and sellers shift unevenly in the early months of a transition as they try to make sense of changing market realities. Eventually statistics based on closed sales – prices, appreciation rates, overbidding, days on market – slowly start to adjust. Generally speaking, closed sales are lagging indicators of what occurred in the economy and market weeks and months earlier.
If stock market prices are like a jet skier on a triple-espresso, home prices are like a giant cargo ship, which decelerates and turns slowly. It took a few months from when the big economic changes began, but the high year-over-year appreciation rates of recent years are now dropping fast in Bay Area markets, though the degree of any actual, longer-term “correction” to prices, if it occurs, remains to be seen."
View July Market Reports Here:
