has been gradually ticking back up, and overbidding numbers actually climbed in February 2023.
Sarah Marcus, a Redfin agent who specializes in Oakland, Berkeley and Alameda, said the beginning of a new year is always slow, but 2023 has been much worse than previous years. Factors including rampantand the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic have weighed heavily on the local market. “This first quarter has been a perfect storm in terms of the [extreme] weather, the interest rates, the bank collapse,” Marcus said.
Others have paused their search entirely. Marcus said she has a client who works for Meta and stopped looking for a new home as they await the company’s next round of layoffs. Uncertainty in the tech sector, especially with the volatility of tech stocks, has caused many people to rejigger their search parameters around return-to-work mandates and affordability.
Plus, this is the lowest inventory Marcus said she’s seen in the 10 years she’s been an agent in the Bay Area. She said she typically sells around 30 homes each year, but she’s not on pace to do that in 2023. “For me personally, it's the lightest load I’ve had in years. I'm down 50% from last year,” Marcus said.
More to come