Real Estate Market - Oakland Condos

August’s condo market in Oakland was something of a numerical mixed bag.  Of course “we all know” (those three little words that signify something coming up that many of us think we know) that the real estate market has cooled significantly from 2004-2005.  And some of the condo numbers support this quite neatly.  The expired to sold ratio, for example, has risen from 3.6% last August to 48.2% this August.  What’s interesting however is that unit volume has remained steady, meaning more units are being offered.  Fifty-six units were sold both this August and last August, with two expiring last August to this August’s twenty-seven.

This August, the median sale price for a Condo in Oakland was $399,000, a 2% increase over last year’s median of $390,950.   At the same time, however, the average sale price dropped 5.5%, from $416,252 last year to $394,669 this year.  Curiously enough, sellers are offering their units at almost exactly the same price this year ($394,732) as they were last year ($394,637), but last year they were getting 5.5% more than list, while this year pretty much they’re getting list price.

The average condo that sold took 37 days to sell in August, as opposed to 24 days last year.

Oakland Real Estate Market, August 2006

Not long ago we were very “bullish” on Oakland’s real estate market.  Based on numbers for Oakland and Berkeley, and especially when we compared these numbers to the Sacramento area, Oakland seemed fairly immune to the slowing we’d seen elsewhere.

Today we reassess that opinion, since the numbers are a mixed bag at best.  Appreciation still looks ok on the face of it, with the median price rising 5.88% from August to August, and the average price risiing 6.88%.  However, at the same time, buyers are getting slightly bigger homes this year than last, so sold price per square foot has actually dropped, albeit by a very slight 0.7%.

The average home sold in Oakland in August for $619,214, or 1% more than the average list of 614,678.  The median sale price was $540,000.  Average days on market were up slightly, from 22 days last year to 30 this year, but expireds were up more significantly, from 65 total last year to 137 this year.  With declining sold unit volume as well (393 units last August versus 263 this August), the expired to sold ratio has shifted from 16.5% last year to 52.1% this year.

Inventory is currently at 4.9 months.