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Big initial public offerings for Lyft, Pinterest and Uber were expected to fuel a surge of home purchases by new millionaires in the San Francisco area. But, midway through spring selling season, evidence to date isn’t backing up the hypothesis.
Patrick Carlisle, a market analyst for Compass, told Bloomberg that the San Francisco-area market is “bumping up against what prices people are willing to pay, or can pay.”
The median sale price of a San Francisco home was $1.65 million in March and April, almost unchanged from the same two-month period last year, brokerage firm Compass reported Tuesday.
Compass also reported that home prices just south of San Francisco in San Mateo County fell 5 percent, and listed properties were staying on the market longer before selling. Another possible explanation could be that many banks in the San Francisco area are used to lending to tech executives with options to buy stock.
Carlisle told Bloomberg he expects the IPOs to boost San Francisco-area home sales in the second half of the spring selling season, but he expects slower home-price appreciation than last year. [Bloomberg] – Mike Seemuth