Oakland leads Bay Area in slumping condo prices

Condo asking prices in Oakland significantly more than in other Bay Area markets between May and October last year. The East Bay’s largest city bucked a national trend by having a larger decrease in condo prices compared to single-family home asking prices, according to data collected by point2homes.

Oakland’s condo asking prices dropped 19 percent, which was the sixth most among U.S. markets. The average price declined from $647,500 to $520,000 in Oakland. By comparison, San Jose dropped 7 percent to $682,000 and San Francisco dropped 1 percent to $1.82 million.

Another California city in the Central Valley topped the list of drops in condo asking prices. Stockton had a decrease of 29 percent from $252,000 to $180,000, the4 highest percentage figure in the country. Elsewhere, Raleigh and New Orleans rounded off the top three with a 25 percent and 23 percent decrease, respectively.

Decreases in single-family asking prices were even steeper than for condos. The single-family category saw an average national decrease of 8.6 percent while condos experienced a 4.4 percent drop. Of the 100 largest cities in the U.S., 88 saw a decrease in single-family asking price, while 65 saw the same for condos.

“When the pandemic forced everyone to cram their entire life inside their homes, spacious, single-family homes (preferably with a backyard) became a must,” the report said. “Consequently, homebuyers went into a real house hunting frenzy, jumpstarting a period of bitter bidding wars and rapidly escalating asking prices. But, what goes up must come down: Now, single-family home prices that shot into the stratosphere are currently undergoing a dramatic price correction.”

While most of the larger cities in California saw a larger asking price decrease for single family, Oakland bucked that trend with an 11 percent drop to $1.04 million for single-family home prices. The opposite held true for San Jose and San Francisco, which saw decreases of 16 percent and 18 percent, respectively, in the single-family category. San Jose went from $1.7 million to $1.4 million and San Francisco from $1.9 million to $1.6 million.

The East Bay suburb of Fremont saw a 17 percent decrease in asking prices from $717,000 to $680,000. Los Angeles tied with San Francisco for the largest drop in California. LA experienced a decrease of $1.3 million to $1.07 million.

“Because of the rising mortgage rates, single-family homes are becoming increasingly unaffordable for homebuyers across the nation, making condos the next best thing,” the report said.