Seasonality & the SF Real Estate Market in PDF form

The issue of seasonality often comes up (with Sellers in particular) and so here are 5 charts (click the link to the PDF below) looking at new listings, overall inventory available to purchase, listings accepting offers, median prices and the luxury home segment – in the context of seasons.

It’s useful to realize that the “seasons” in real estate are of different durations: the “spring” season can start as early as mid-late February and go through end of May/ mid-June; summer is mid-June/early July through Labor Day; the autumn market wakes up sometime after Labor Day and runs through about mid-November; and then the big holiday/winter slowdown runs from mid-November to mid-January. Of course, business can be done in any season and other factors affect the market besides the season.

September is usually the single month with the greatest number of new listings – something for buyers to be prepared for. For sellers, the window for selling a listing is much shorter than in the spring because by the time the market wakes up after Labor Day, the holiday season is really only about two months away – and the decline in market activity as Thanksgiving approaches/ going into December is much greater than in summer.

The luxury home market is affected more deeply by seasonality than the general market (which among other things raises and lowers the median sales price).

Seasonality_Homes_For-Sale

Seasonality_Median-Price_SFD

Seasonality_New_Listings

Seasonality_UC_LuxHome-vs-Lower

Seasonality-Units-Accepting-Offers

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