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.
September 5th, 2006 at 10:46 pm
We are seeing some more inventory here in the South Bay as well, which in our case means more phone calls about what to do when buyers do not perform!