Inventory remains low, interest rates are creeping up. Still, in the Bay Area, real estate market indicators remain very strong.

2021 saw the highest 12-month sales volume in at least 16 years. Rents are down, and county population is down about 2%. Find out more about what’s happening in the market as we kick off the new year.

We’re headed into a typically slow end of year, even after what is surely one of the highest demand cycles in history.

Will inflation cause interest rates to creep up? That’s a typical pattern, but predicting changes in interest rates is a tricky game.

Somewhat surprisingly we are seeing a downtick in YOY inventory even as we entered the normally very hot fall sales season. After October, we typically see a drastic decline in new listings, but nothing about the market has been typical for some time now.

Compared to pre-pandemic levels, SFRs are up, condos are flat, and rents are still down. Read more in this month’s market report.

The first half of 2021 delivered big results, with plenty of new highs: Dollar-volume sales beat the previous high by nearly half, new listing and sales volume almost as high as 2015-2016, and much more.

Home prices in San Francisco presented as a mouse-over map and with charts by district.

Luxury house and condo sales skyrocket to new highs in spring 2021, and employment continues to rebound. San Francisco is roaring back from the pandemic lows.

Home sales volume reaches a new high, SFR prices spike, and the condo market continues to rebound.

What we can see from recent US census data is that the pandemic definitely did have an impact, with an increase in outbound migration from San Francisco and the Bay Area—but it is not a new phenomenon, merely amplified.

We are now beginning to see the arc of the impact the pandemic had on the real estate market in San Francisco. At least for now, we appear to be on the other side of it, and life in general seems to be returning to some semblance of how things were before—including the promise of the return of open houses.

Median house sales price up 6.5%. Median 2BR condo price down 10.6%. Home sales volume up 60%. Luxury house sales up 51%. Luxury condo sales up 39%

The spring market began in January & continues to accelerate. New listings up 10%. Listings Pending Sale up 95%. Luxury House Sales up 87%.

Home sales surged at the end of 2020, and high demand got 2021 off to a heated start.

The real estate market in San Francisco saw complicated dynamics in supply and demand, with a strong recovery after an initial crash in activity. 2020: a year of extremes.

New U.S. Census data was released in early December, which allows us to look at a wide variety of data from a number of different sources.

Though the pandemic upended many normal seasonal trends this year, the market did begin its typical “holiday season” slowdown in November. However, activity remained well above levels of last year.