November and December typically see very significant seasonal slowdowns in market activity. For buyers, this is an excellent time to take a second look at listing that haven’t sold as sellers may be motivated to be done!

For sellers, this season is a great time to consider preparing your home for sale when the market gets going again in the spring. Now is the perfect time to retain an agent who can help you explore your options.

In January, we will take a look at all of 2021 and what has certainly been one of the highest demand markets in history. In the meantime, we can look at:

The biggest Bay Area home sales of 2021 YTD, and the highest-priced listings current on the market.
Median price appreciation by property type
What it costs and what you get when buying a 4+ bedroom, 3500+ sq.ft. house in markets around the Bay Area.

This report looks at median home sales prices for the region as a whole and references Oakland, Piedmont, Alameda, Berkeley, Albany, Kensington, El Cerrito, and Richmond.

The highest priced listing in Alameda County in the last 12 months was an exceptionally large lot and home in Piedmont at $19,850,000. ( still available! ) The highest priced sale in 2021 in Alameda County was also in Piedmont at $10,000,000.

Comparing home sales in Alameda county in 2021 YTD with the same period of 2019. Since 2020 was a very unusual market, upended by the pandemic, this analysis compares 2021 YTD sales with the same period pre-pandemic.

Home sales in the highest price segments saw percentage increases much larger than the market as a whole. One factor was appreciation, but another was the huge, disproportionate surge in the sale of luxury homes since the pandemic hit.

Here we take a look at the Inner East Bay median price per square foot values since 2018 — 3-month rolling average.

After the pandemic hit, the median dollar per square foot value for houses surged from below that for condos to substantially above. The figures currently sit at about $650 for condos and approaching $750 for single family homes, so while prices are both up, the disparity between the two has grown making condos a relative bargain.

Our East bay housing market wakes up in a hurry in the Spring, as demonstrated here! Last years highest inventory was a month earlier than usual and peaked in April. If you’re thinking of selling in 2022, do reach out early in the year!

This is a snapshot of how many active listings can be expected on any given day of the specified month. The number of active listings on any given day has climbed since the year began, as is typical. It has dropped a bit since its summer high and typically bottoms out in January.

Buying a large home in the Bay Area is increasingly becoming an expensive endeavor, but Alameda County with a median price for a 4BR+, 3500+ sq.ft home at $2,650,000 is still more affordable than several neighboring counties.

What is partially contributing to the rising costs in the luxury home market is the increase in demand for these properties, as evidenced here by the growing closed sales numbers over the last year.

November 2021 saw an unusual spike in higher-price home sales, mostly reflecting buyer demand/market activity in October.

More market update data from Compass can be found here.