What’s happening in our neighborhood? Is now a good time to buy or sell a home in the Oakland / Berkeley East Bay Area? With all the uncertainty going on, what should we do?
As of the time of this video recording in Oakland, we have 320 single family homes for sale and 336 homes pending. 306 single family homes were sold in Oakland, CA in the past 30 days, with the average price point being 1.238M and the average days on market being 16.
In Berkeley, we have 62 single family homes on the market. This may seem a lot less, but Oakland is much bigger compared to Berkeley. Berkeley has 62 homes pending. 63 single family homes have sold in the last 30 days in Berkeley with the median sales price of 1.986M and the average days on market of 12.
So as you can see, we’re still considered to be a seller’s market. We come up with what type of market is based upon looking at what the absorption rate is. The absorption rate in the real estate market is used to evaluate the rate at which available homes are sold in a specific market during a given period of time. It’s calculated by dividing the number of homes sold in the allotted time period by the total number of homes available. So the absorption rate in Oakland is 29 days, which means if we did not add any more inventory, we would only have 29 days of inventory and in Berkeley we only have 30 days supply of inventory. Experts believe that anything less than a six month inventory level would be considered a seller’s market and anything over that would be considered a buyers market, hence, we’re in a seller’s market right now.
Personally, I feel that in our current market here, once we start to see homes sitting for longer than 30-ish days, that it means that a price reduction is warranted. We haven’t seen inventory levels supersede three months in a very long time.
If you look at the facts here in Oakland, CA and Berkeley, CA, you see that we are in a very strong seller’s market. If your home isn’t selling, there are several reasons why: Price, Condition, Location and of course Marketing. Now more than ever proper exposure and properly using online digital marketing is essential.
Feel free to call me, I’m your digital marketing specialist and Top Producing Realtor® in the OAKLAND / BERKELEY EAST BAY AREA. I’ve been in the East Bay since I came up to do my undergrad at UC Berkeley (a long time ago!), with a short stint at UC Davis while getting my Master’s. I take my duties as a Realtor® and Fiduciary very seriously, I enjoy educating my sellers and buyers along the way. Putting People, Before Profit.