San Francisco Real Estate

Heading into the 2019 Market

February 2019 Report

As of early February, the government shutdown is over - at least for a little while - the stock market has recovered dramatically from its late 2018 plunge, and interest rates are well down from November highs. A good number of large, local, high-tech "unicorns" continue to plan IPOs in 2019. All these are positive economic indicators for the Bay Area real estate market - but indicators have proven to be quite volatile over the past 5 months and future movements are not to be taken for granted.

As detailed in our last report, there was considerable cooling in the market in the second half of 2018. The month of January typically has the fewest sales of the year, sales which mostly reflect activity during the December market doldrums: We don't consider its data to be a reliable indicator of conditions or trends. But activity is picking up, and the beginning of the spring sales season - which in the Bay Area can start as early as February - will soon provide more direction as to where the market is heading.

San Francisco Home Value Trends

Median House Sales Prices by Month since 1990

Median sales prices often fluctuate by month and by season. It is not unusual for them to spike to new peaks during the spring selling season, and then decline and/or plateau afterward (until the next spring). So, the question is: What's going to happen in spring 2019?