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.