In what some are hoping is a sign that the San Francisco housing marketing is cooling a bit, the percentage of homes flipped in 2015 represented a decrease over the previous year. Flipping — which for those who don't know or haven't watched enough HGTV is the maneuver where a house is bought and sold within the same year — apparently went down from 3.6 percent in 2014 to 3.3 percent in 2015.
These numbers come from the online real estate site Trulia, and while the decrease seems practically insignificant, the Examiner reports that it may have some import after all.
“It might mean that in the future," Trulia chief economist Ralph McLaughlin noted to the paper, "there’s less speculation in the Bay Area.”
Yeah, sure, maybe. It might! Or, as McLaughlin suggests, it may just mean that the housing situation is so messed up in San Francisco that even flippers can't quite make it work. "The combination of short supply and high price makes it difficult for ‘flippers’ to find houses in the Bay Area,” he explained.
This is not the first time we've heard talk of some cooling conditions in SF's typically blazing-hot housing market. In November of last year various reports suggested that the luxury end of the market might finally be chilling out. But, you know, with that highway shack selling for $1.2 million we think the market is still pretty warm.
Previously: At High End, SF's Housing Market Finally Cooling Off