December 2024 Market Report

San Francisco Real Estate

Clients, friends, and colleagues:

Near the end of November, markets around the Bay Area began moving into the mid-winter holiday slowdown (December typically results in the lowest counts of the year for new listings and homes going into contract). Homes are still listed and deals continue to be made, just at a much slower pace. And as I always tell my clients, this is usually the period where buyers can negotiate most aggressively on unsold properties with longer days on market.

It is difficult to make definitive determinations about where the market is heading in 2025 from Q4 statistics, but in the last several years, demand rebounded substantially early in the new year and then accelerated into spring. And many of us agents have reported a significant increase in clients wanting to list their homes next year. As always, much depends on political and macroeconomic factors that are challenging to predict.

As of last week - inflation ticked up slightly to 2.7% while the core CPI remained unchanged at 3.3%.

Interest rates have ticked down a bit, mostly in the mid 6s, though there are great incentives with certain institutions that can help get your rate down (contact me for more information).

This report will look at supply and demand dynamics recorded in November - but always note that these are lagging indicators: November data primarily reflects listings that went into contract in October.

A couple quick tidbits before we jump into the data:

In totality, stock markets have continued their rise (Dow is +16% YTD; Nasdaq is +36% YTD; S&P is +28% YTD).

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced its third consecutive interest rate cut of 2024, reducing its benchmark rate by 0.25 percentage points amid cooling inflation. Yet in a blow for borrowers, the central bank also projected that it will loosen rates less next year than previously expected.

Consumer confidence hit its highest reading in 7 months on 12/6/2024.

If you have any questions about the general market or specific property, I am always here and happy to assist.

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season!

Cheers,

Matt

Matt Wathen

DRE# 01879082

M: 415.920.3213

[email protected]

Statistics are generalities, essentially summaries of widely disparate data generated by dozens, hundreds or thousands of unique, individual sales occurring within different time periods. They are best seen not as precise measurements, but as broad, comparative indicators, with reasonable margins of error. Anomalous fluctuations in statistics are not uncommon, especially in smaller, expensive market segments. Last period data should be considered estimates that may change with late-reported data. Different analytics programs sometimes define statistics - such as "active listings," "days on market," and "months supply of inventory" - differently: what is most meaningful are not specific calculations but the trends they illustrate. Most listing and sales data derives from the local or regional multi-listing service (MLS) of the area specified in the analysis, but not all listings or sales are reported to MLS and these won't be reflected in the data. "Homes" signifies real-property, single-household housing units: houses, condos, co-ops, townhouses, duets and TICs (but not mobile homes), as applicable to each market. City/town names refer specifically to the named cities and towns, or their MLS areas, unless otherwise delineated. Multi­county metro areas will be specified as such. Data from sources deemed reliable, but may contain errors and subject to revision. All numbers to be considered approximate.

Many aspects of value cannot be adequately reflected in median and average statistics: curb appeal, age, condition, amenities, views, lot size, quality of outdoor space, "bonus" rooms, additional parking, quality of location within the neighborhood, and so on. How any of these statistics apply to any particular home is unknown without a specific comparative market analysis.