What you need to know about “San Francisco” real estate stats

Based on a recent SFgate blog post, Trulia has calculated the median home sales price in San Francisco for 2012 at $780,000. I can’t find a link back to the Trulia source, but any time I hear a general “San Francisco” statistic, I always get a little bit nervous. Often, numbers that are representative of the five bay area counties (San Francisco, Marin, Contra Costa, Alameda, San Mateo) are reported as being “San Francisco” numbers, which they obviously aren’t. In addition, as I’ve written about before, San Francisco has numerous micro-markets based on neighborhood and property type (ie, what might be happening for single family homes in Pacific Heights is not the same market dynamic affecting TICs in Noe Valley).

I spent some time in the MLS this morning, using the 2012 MLS data to calculate median sales prices by property type, number of sales by property type, and days on market by property type. Let’s take a look, starting with Single Family Homes:

Single Family Homes, District 1 – 10, 2010 – 2012

As you can see below, the median sales price of a single family home in San Francisco was $760,000, which Trulia isn’t too far off from. This is up from $690,000  in 2011 and slightly up from 2010′s median sale price of $748,000.
The number of single family homes sold in 2012 was 2,618, up significantly from 2011′s 2,473 sales and 2010′s 2,333 sales. And, as I’ve written about already, 2012 was the year of the buyer, and demand far exceeded supply, with the days on market dropping in 2012 to 34, down from 43 in 2011 and 41 in 2010. 

Condos, District 1 – 10, 2010 – 2012

When we look at condos, we see the numbers are (obviously) different than for single family homes, or TICs, or lofts. The median condo sales price in 2012 was $746,000 up from $648,000 in 2011 and $675,000 in 2010. The total number of condos sold in 2012 was 2,495, up significantly from the 2,031 sold in 2011 and the 1,846 sold in 2010.  And, again, demand outpaced supply, with the 2012 days on market for a condo coming in at 36, down from 54 in 2011 and 56 in 2012. 

Tenancies in Common (TICs), District 1 – 10, 2010 – 2012

Tenancies in Common – to no surprise – came in with a median sales price well below that of single family homes or condos (which is why TICs were created, but we won’t go there in this post). The 2012 median TIC sales price was $570,100, down slightly from the 2011 price of $575,000 but up from the 2010 price of $536,250.  Just like other property types, though, there were more sales in 2012. There were 354 TIC sales in 2012, up from 329 in 2011 and 272 in 2010.
And finally, even though supply was up, demand was up even more, resulting in a days on market calculation for TICs in 2012 of 48, down from 67 in 2011 and way down from the average days on market in 2010 of 87 days. 

Lofts, District 1 – 10, 2010 – 2012

Finally, lets look at the loft market, which is distinct from condos for a variety of reasons, layout and style being one, deed restrictions (live/work) being another. For 2012, the median sales price of a loft was $656,500 up from the median price in 2011 of $590,000 and the median 2010 price of $592,000.  Again, more lofts sold in 2012 than in the past two years. 2012 had 224 loft sales, up from 150 in 2011 and 163 in 2010.  Days on market for lofts was also down. The 2012 days on market average for lofts was 36 days, down substantially from the 2011 average of 66 days, and also down from the 2010 average of 56 days on market.
While it might sound obvious, the moral of the story is that a loft is not a condo is not a TIC is not a single family. And Pacific Heights is not Yerba Buena which is not the Excelsior, and so on and so-forth.