Bay Area home prices flat while sales volume declines

Home sales across the nine-county Bay Area in July declined 4% from last year, while the median sales price stayed flat, at $1.3 million, according to new data.

In Marin County, the median house price in July was $1.6 million, the assessor’s office reported. The median was $1.65 million in June and $1.6 million in July 2024.

The median price for a condominium or townhome in Marin last month was $662,500, down from $799,000 the prior July, according to the county.

The overall number of residential sales in Marin — including houses, condominiums and townhomes — declined from 248 in July 2024 to 219 last month, the assessor’s office said. That was a year-over-year drop of nearly 12%. House sales alone fell about 9%.

Elsewhere in the Bay Area, median house prices in July included $862,500 in Contra Costa County, $1.25 million in Alameda County, $1.6 million in San Francisco, $1.9 million in Santa Clara County and $2.1 million in San Mateo County, the California Association of Realtors reported.

Sales declined 7.2% in San Francisco year over year, but rose 6.1% in Sonoma County and 11.3% in Napa County, the association said.

Statewide, house prices fell to a five-month low of $884,050, a 0.3% decline from the prior July.

“With housing inventory reaching a plateau and the statewide sales-price-to-list ratio hitting a near 30-month low, the market appears to be cooling off slightly as home prices dipped for the third straight month,” said Jordan Levine, chief economist for the California Association of Realtors. “Even with recent price declines, California’s median home price could still see a modest annual increase in 2025, provided the market stabilizes in the coming months.”

Homes in desirable neighborhoods are still fetching multiple offers, agents say.

Marie Tesch worked with an agent from TurboHome to stage her Walnut Creek home and paint the place a fresh new color, before listing it on the market.

“You definitely don’t want to just throw a house on the market right now — the most important thing is to make it look turnkey,” said Tesch, a former real estate agent herself. “The buyer has to feel like they’re not going to do anything.”

In just one weekend of open houses, Tesch got three offers. The home sold over asking.

Sellers who try to price high may be stuck with a home that sits on the market, agents say. Inventory is up 26% from last year across the nine-county region, meaning that sellers have more competition, and buyers are taking more time to look. The median time on market was 24 days in July — up from 16 days a year earlier.

“Sellers still think they’re in the first quarter of this year, when prices were rising,” said Freda Wang, an agent with Compass in Santa Clara County.

Condos are taking even longer to sell than houses — a median of 34 days this July, compared to 24 a year ago.

In part, new laws around balcony inspections are giving lenders pause. But it’s also about financing: Condo buyers tend to be first-time buyers who are more reliant on a mortgage.

As of Aug. 21, the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.58%, according to housing finance giant Freddie Mac. Compared to someone with a 2.5% rate in 2022, today’s buyer might be paying hundreds, or thousands, more on a monthly mortgage payment — even for a home with the same sticker tag.

After months of pressure from President Donald Trump to cut interest rates, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell indicated in a speech last week that the central bank could begin reducing borrowing costs as soon as September, despite the risk of pushing inflation higher.