The third quarter marks a shift in the West Coast's housing markets, as fewer homes sell annually, causing the supply of for-sale housing to increase.
In particular, San Jose and San Francisco, Calif. have more listings after six years of diminishing inventory and hot home price appreciation. San Jose had the biggest for-sale inventory growth in September, 86.7 percent. Out of 170 U.S. metros studied overall, Redfin finds that San Diego and Oakland, Calif. had for-sale increases between 26.8 and 28.9 percent, San Francisco's for-sale stock grew 22.5 percent year-over-year, but Portland, Ore.'s supply increased 28.9 percent, and Seattle's was up 53.9 percent in September.
Just a year earlier, inventory in all of these markets was rapidly declining, with double-digit year-over-year decreases in every market but Portland, where the number of homes for sale fell by just 4.7 percent. Big gains in the number of homes for sale would seem to be a sign that more people are finally listing their homes, which is what homebuyers have long been hoping for. But that’s not exactly what’s happening in most of these markets. Instead, the biggest reason for the buildup of inventory in these markets is that fewer homes are being sold.