San Francisco homeowners and buyers are seeing some of the biggest price jumps in recent months. The median price for a single-family home in the city increased $100,000. Prices have reached an all-time high of $1.6 million, according to the Paragon Real Estate Group in San Francisco. For comparison, the median home price nationwide was $279,900 on March 1, according to realtor.com®.
Home prices in San Francisco increased nearly 24 percent in the first quarter of this year compared to a year ago.
“We didn’t see this coming,” says Patrick Carlisle, Paragon’s chief marketing analyst. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen this kind of jump.”
Housing analysts say the big jump in San Francisco prices is due to the limited number of homes for sale. Plus, the city is on a peninsula, so builders don’t have much more room to build on to add inventory. Existing homeowners are showing some reluctance to sell.
“There’s just a trickle of new listings coming on the market, and they’re snapped up almost immediately,” Carlisle says. “We’ve had situations where there are 10 to 20 offers on a new listing, sometimes even more. Multiple offers are the norm, and sometimes there are frenzied bidding wars.”
And for $1.6 million, buyers need to keep their expectations in check. In San Francisco, the median price for a single-family home will buy you a moderately sized home with a few bedrooms and two bathrooms—nothing too prestigious, housing analysts say.
Source: “House Prices Jumped $100K in the Past 3 Months in This City,” realtor.com® (April 5, 2018)
