January sales numbers are in, and it looked a lot like December – slow. But it’s typical for sales to cool off during the cold winter months. You can expect things to pick up in March, even with inventory and prices in a continued state of flux. Some things in the housing market never change!
Let’s take a look at how median sales prices for houses stacked up county-by-county from Napa to Monterey in Q4 2022. As you can see, costs get a bit more affordable the further you get from Silicon Valley and the Peninsula.
According to Compass market analysis, for the first time in a decade, median home prices in San Francisco fell by 1% from a booming 2021 to a cooling 2022 and came to rest at $1.78 million. Oddly enough, single-family homes are doing twice as well as condos, with more than 60% of sales closing over asking price. Recent tech layoffs certainly won’t help the condo market in months ahead. But it’s yet to be seen how big of an impact the “Tech-xit” will have.
The market continues to wake up on the cool side of the pillow, with inventory and median sales prices down year over year. Of course, the holidays are typically a slow period, and with the global economy still in recovery mode, we’ll see what the new year has in store.
According to data from the California Association of Realtors, the housing market is weathering the economic downturn better than it did during the Great Recession, as buyers have more skin in the game.
Compared to those who bought their homes before the recession, buyers in recent years have made higher down payments, taken on fewer risky loans and second mortgages, and have higher household incomes. That means we can expect fewer defaults and foreclosures as the market continues to shift.
