Nicholas J. Klein – stock.adobe.com
While most of San Francisco’s housing market is crawling compared to pre-pandemic times, one neighborhood remains resilient: the Sunset District.
Most of the city is seeing homes sit on the market for longer periods, but that area is still attracting buyers at nearly pre-COVID speeds — making it one of the few bright spots in an otherwise sluggish real estate environment.
According to data from Redfin, homes in the Sunset’s 94122 and 94116 ZIP codes sold in a median of two weeks between June and August 2024, a pace almost identical to the same period in 2019 when the median was 16 days, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The adjacent 94127 ZIP code also showed similar strength, with homes selling in a median of 14 days this year, down just one day from the 15-day median five years ago.
Meanwhile, homes in nearly every other part of San Francisco took significantly longer to sell. Across the city, the overall median time to find a buyer jumped to 35 days in 2024, up from just 24 days in 2019.
Redfin’s data underscores how most of the housing market in San Francisco, and California at large, has remained sluggish.
The market in the city by the Bay has been crashing, The Post previously reported — attributed to factors such as inflation, crime and the drug epidemic.
The delays in sales have been exacerbated by rising mortgage rates, which peaked after a dip in September and another surge in October. Those shifts in mortgage rates likely impacted sales after the data was collected, but even before that, the numbers pointed to slower sales in most neighborhoods.
But not in the Sunset, where homes are selling faster and fetching prices higher than the city’s median home value of $1.3 million. According to Zillow, typical home prices in the Sunset range between $1.4 million and $1.5 million, and they remain a draw for buyers seeking a balance between affordability and the neighborhood’s many perks.
“That particular area (runs) very hot or cold,” Allison Crawford, of Sotheby’s International Realty in San Francisco, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Recently, it has been very strong, and if you look at recent sales, they all have been going well over the asking price.”
One of the key reasons the Sunset remains in demand is its convenience. The neighborhood boasts small commercial centers, with easy access to Golden Gate Park via 19th Avenue and close proximity to San Francisco International Airport.
The balance of affordability compared to other parts of the city has also kept interest high, as buyers looking for more space or family-friendly homes are gravitating toward the Sunset.
In stark contrast, homes in some of San Francisco’s wealthiest neighborhoods, like Pacific Heights and the Marina District, are seeing a significant slowdown.
Data from Redfin shows that homes in the 94123 ZIP code, which includes those neighborhoods, took a median of 55 days to sell between June and August 2024 — more than double the 20-day median in 2019.
Michelle Harris, of Compass, says the combination of sky-high prices and rising interest rates has made it difficult for buyers and sellers to close deals in these upscale areas.
“The change in interest rates … has really kind of locked things up,” Harris explained to the outlet. With homes in Pacific Heights and the Marina often priced in the multimillion-dollar range, sellers are being more selective about the offers they accept, not wanting to take a loss on such significant investments.
Some are holding out in hopes of lower mortgage rates, unwilling to settle for a deal that would require them to take on a much higher monthly payment. That slowdown in wealthier neighborhoods is part of a broader trend affecting much of San Francisco’s downtown and surrounding areas.
The 94103 ZIP code, which includes parts of the South of Market district, has also seen homes sitting on the market for longer, taking more than three weeks longer to find a buyer than they did in 2019. The pandemic led to significant changes in buyer preferences, with many turning to suburban areas where they could have larger homes with backyards and home office spaces.
That so-called “doughnut effect” drove down property values in downtown San Francisco and nearby Oakland, which saw some of the sharpest drops in home prices during the pandemic. Though San Francisco’s real estate prices are still among the highest in the country, the demand for homes in urban areas has been slow to recover, and high prices continue to put homeownership out of reach for many.
Looking ahead, experts predict that the San Francisco housing market will remain slow through 2025, with little relief expected in mortgage rates. Harris pointed out that the upcoming presidential election, as well as the holiday season, will likely cause further delays in home sales as both buyers and sellers hit pause.
“I think there are many buyers who are already starting to hear jingle bells,” she joked.