Oakland leads Bay Area in slumping condo prices

East Bay city’s average ask declines 19% to $520K, per point2homes

(Getty)
(Getty)

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.

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“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.

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