San Fran Home Sales Crash To Lowest Level Since 2008 As Pricing Reset Gets Underway

We have frequently written over the past couple of quarters about the bubbly San Francisco housing market that looks set for another epic reversal as home prices have reached staggering new highs just as employment levels seem to be rolling over. With home prices now implying that only 10-20% of residents can afford the “median” priced home, it’s certainly not difficult to understand why demand may be waning.
According to HousingWire and a new report from PropertyRadar, home sales in the Bay Area are finally starting to rollover with Q3 YTD volumes down 10.3% YoY, reflecting the fewest number of homes sold over that same time period since 2008. Perhaps even more staggering is that distressed property sales fell 35.7% YoY so far in 2016, to the lowest level since 2001, as “low-priced” inventory dried up and buyers have found it financially impossible to move up to higher price tiers.
Conversely, non-distressed property sales fell 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. But it should be noted that as a percentage of total sales, distressed property sales accounted for only 7.9% of total sales, compared to 11.1% in 2015 and a high of 56.3% in 2009.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on Nov 18, 2016.