Ahead of the Fed: Dam Breaks on SF Home Listings

San Francisco homeowners have flooded the market with homes for sale on the eve of a Federal Reserve Bank announcement about lowering interest rates.

The number of active listings in the city rose to 1,234 in the week of Sept. 11, from 1,000 at the end of last month, the San Francisco Business Times reported, citing weekly MLS figures. That represents an uptick of 23 percent.

The Federal Reserve is expected to lower rates today, Sept. 18.

For condos, the number of new listings shot up to 185 for the beginning of this month, from 30 condos listed over the prior seven days. For single-family homes, new listings rose to 110 homes, from 40 homes the previous week.

“There is much more for our buyers to look at,” broker Nina Hatvany with Compass told the newspaper. “In terms of our own inventory, we have had four listings go into contract in this last week alone — a noticeable change of pace from the summer months.

“One listing in Bernal Heights had been on the market for four months and finally found a buyer close to the asking price.”

Vanguard Properties co-owner Frank Nolan added that the total inventory is about 7 percent below last year’s at this time, but the week before was 10 percent below last year. “The margin is shrinking,” Nolan told the Business Times.

“We need inventory,” added Nolan, who predicts new units will continue to come on the market until about mid-October, when the pace is likely to slow and absorption is likely to increase. “Then it’s like Pac-Man,” he said.

Elsewhere in the Bay Area, notable properties have been both coming to market and changing hands.

In Menlo Park, a new home built by Silicon Valley-based Handa Developers Group came to market at $14.2 million, the highest priced home in the region.

In Marin County, the most expensive sale of the year traded on Aug. 20 — a $14.4 million mansion sold by India’s so-called “King of Good Times” liquor magnate Vijay Mallya, The Real Deal reported. The buyer of the home, first listed in 2021, was Puna, an LLC based in Colorado.

This month, mortgage rates and prices have been moving in a promising direction for the housing market, and could send activity sky-high, according to TRD.

The changes have already improved affordability in markets across the country and set off refinancings, which didn’t seem worthwhile in recent years after a surge in rates, according to Inman.

— Dana Bartholomew