Charts, Data, Trends

By all accounts, the San Francisco market is still doing very well considering the environment we're in. However, there seems to be an incredible disconnect between those individuals that are actively pursuing a home, Realtors, and what we'll call the "know-it-alls."

The active buyers are showing up at open houses early, and they're armed with an arsenal of questions like: "How long has the home been on the market?"; "How many disclosure packages have you handed out?"; "Why are the sellers selling?"; and the most common still being, "When are you accepting offers?"

Realtors are asking a lot of the same questions, but are much more cautious advising their clients to go way over and having a much more difficult time gauging where a property will/should sell. At least any Realtor worth their weight is. Some are still just advising their clients to shoot for the moon and wind up being the only offer....bad, bad, bad.
 
Lastly, the "know-it-alls" are those that might live in the area, aren't actively tracking the market, read a lot of publications and media, and just happen to "know the market is not good" based largely on what they're reading, but not experiencing. A common question from these types might be, "Is this a foreclosure sale?" What!? You must be kidding. Not only is this upsetting, but it is just plain bad. The media has created such a perception of our market that the sideline "know-it-all" thinks most homes on the market these days are foreclosures. We have news for you, most homes for sale in San Francisco are not foreclosure sales!

Although the majority of what is being reported is still, and always will be, bad news, the real news is that San Francisco is still doing just fine, and in our opinion remains a solid long term choice for real estate. The nominal declines in value we have seen should be music to many buyers ears, and will likely be short-lived. Information provided by sfnewsletter.