Home sales this spring have been dragging in most U.S. housing markets compared to last March — dipping 2.4% nationwide.
But, of course, the Bay Area’s housing market has never been like the rest of the country’s.
In March, the region posted the biggest leap in annual home sales in the U.S., highlighting the relentless demand among buyers, despite the economic uncertainty that has dulled enthusiasm elsewhere.
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“The Bay Area, with its strong economy, is not as vulnerable to high mortgage rates or market fluctuations,” said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, the online real estate brokerage.
The boost in sales comes as hundreds of sellers decided to list in March, raising inventory across the Bay Area by 35% from last year. New listings rose 19.3% in Oakland, 17.3% in San Jose and 12.6% in San Francisco.
That’s despite high interest rates, which have hovered around 7% and kept homeowners from wanting to give up their 3% pandemic-era interest rates to move.
“The lock-in effect is finally starting to wear off,” Fairweather said.
The increase in available homes has kept prices steady in much of the Bay Area, according to the California Association of Realtors. The median sales price in March rose just 1% from last year to $1.4 million. The median price was $907,0000 in Contra Costa County, $1.38 million in Alameda County, $1.7 million in Marin County, $1.8 million in San Francisco, $2.1 million in Santa Clara County, and $2.3 million in San Mateo County. Santa Clara, with its booming artificial intelligence industry, had the biggest price gains of those six counties, increasing 11.3% from last year.
The increase in inventory means that sellers need to be strategic about their marketing to stand out from the crowd, said Elena Licardi, a broker with Coldwell Banker based in Los Gatos.
“There are more options out there right now,” she said. “You’ve got to make sure your home looks good and is priced to get a lot of activity.”
The Bay Area condo market was also up — sales increased 12%, and the median price rose 2.7% to $847,000.
Lars Pave was one of those buyers who finally pulled the trigger this spring, after saving nearly two decades for a down payment.
An exterior view of Lars Pave’s three-bedroom townhome in the Sequoyah Heights neighborhood in Oakland, Calif., on April 25, 2025. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)Pave, a 53-year old digital marketer, and his wife had begun searching during the pandemic, but were turned off by rampant bidding wars that pushed prices far over asking and meant homes sold in just days.
This spring’s market was notably calmer. The listing they saw — for a three-bedroom, three-bathroom home in the Oakland hills — had sat for four months without a buyer. Pave took that as an invitation to come in with a lower initial offer. Their bid of $829,000 was $20,000 under asking, but it won the house.
Looking back, they regret a missed chance to lock in a lower interest rate, even if it would have meant paying more.
“We were waiting for the market to soften up, and that was a mistake,” Pave said. With a 7% interest rate, they had less spending power than they would have had five years ago. “We should have bid higher and gotten in with the low rates, instead of settling for less now. But you never know these things in the moment.”
Many buyers find themselves in a similar situation. The interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage started off the year at 6.91%, and barely budged, according to Freddie Mac.
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Cupertino housing project is part of a growing trend as expensive Bay Area cities want teachers to live near their schools Taves: Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara is paving California’s road to hell California lawmakers push new bill to tighten rent control Elias: Berkeley’s ADU amnesty program may set example for other cities California Democrats take aim at renter late fees, energy bills with affordability packageIt’s a disappointment for both buyers and agents, who had hoped that the Federal Reserve might lower interest rates this year. But Fed chairman Jerome Powell has indicated that he won’t lower rates anytime soon, especially as he waits to see how Trump’s tariffs and other economic policies play out.
Still, it’s clear that mortgage rates aren’t stopping buyers.
“Buyers have had time to recalibrate to interest rates,” said Ricky Flores, an agent with Golden Gate Sotheby’s International Realty based in Menlo Park. “Now they’re stepping back out onto the market and making offers.”
Many buyers in the Bay Area aren’t even reliant on a mortgage — in San Francisco, 26.5% of buyers bought in all cash, and in San Jose, it was 18%, according to Redfin.
Homes are still selling quickly. Single-family homes spent a median time of just 13 days on the market in the Bay Area — the least amount of time for any region in California. Still, that number varies from county to county: homes in Santa Clara County sold in a median of eight days, whereas they spent 49 days on the market in Marin County.
Fairweather, the Redfin economist, said that return-to-office policies among Silicon Valley tech companies are driving the stronger market in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. Bay Area white-collar workers are spending about three days a week in the office, recent survey data shows.
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