How Long Does It Take to Sell a House in San Francisco?

It takes a lot longer to sell a home in San Francisco and the Peninsula than the rest of the Bay Area. Blame higher interest rates and picky buyers.

In May, 55 percent of homes for sale in the San Francisco-San Mateo county region had been listed for a month or more without finding a buyer, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, citing new figures from Redfin.

That’s down from 58 percent a year earlier. The national rate for unsold homes for a month, meanwhile, was 62 percent.

It’s the newly renovated and highly desirable houses that buyers pounce on, brokers say, while fixer-uppers and Downtown condominiums take much longer to sell. With higher interest rates adding to costs, many home buyers are choosy about the listings they bid on.

In the East Bay region of Alameda-Contra Costa county, 44 percent of homes for sale in May were listed for 30 days or more, according to Redfin. Demand has surged in suburban cities like Walnut Creek and Dublin during the era of remote work.

In greater San Jose, including Santa Clara and San Benito counties, 34 percent of listings hadn’t sold in 30 days – down from 46 percent a year earlier.

Some properties haven’t sold for months, leading to questions about pricing.

Nearly a third of listings in the San Francisco-San Mateo county area had been on the market for at least 60 days as of the end of May. Across the nation, the same was true for 40 percent of homes.

The rate of 30-day-plus listings generally spikes during the holidays, when the housing market is at its slowest, to as much as 80 percent in the San Francisco-San Mateo area, according to the Chronicle.

The share is generally lower during the spring, though it has stayed slightly higher since the pandemic.

Among the 50 most crowded U.S. metros in May, the Florida cities of Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Miami had the highest share of unsold homes within 30 days, at 76 percent, according to Redfin.

The New York market had 67 percent of unsold homes, while Los Angeles had 58 percent. Elsewhere in California, unsold homes in Riverside stood at 61 percent, Sacramento at 50 percent, San Diego at 48 percent and Anaheim at 47 percent.

— Dana Bartholomew