inventory of cookie cutter suburban tract houses and onerinconhill condos are relevant only when you are actually in the market for that product.

stated another way- i don’t care how many soma lofts are on the market b/c it does not materially affect the availability or price of the sfr market in d7.

or as Jules says in pulp fiction “sewer rat could taste like pumpkin pie and i still would’nt eat that filthy mfcker”

Sometimes referred to as absorption rate — here is a more detailed post on the topic.

Alex, can we have a current list?

On that list, I’d list the same invotenry as above (upping the price to 1.5 as many fish go stale “just because” they are overpriced) and compare to same last year.

not sure there is so much of it.

think of buying a bathing suit. Inventory is large ENOUGH when you can have several choices in your size, several colors to pick from – and from the 5 to 10 you try on, you can actually find one that is not too expensive, about the color/style you wanted AND that you dont look fat in it.

Translated to RE market, inventory is large ENOUGH when you can have several choices in your price ranges, several neighborhoods to pick from – and from the 5 ti 10 you visit and have a FAIR chance to make an offer (that takes any pending, high flying and other off market deals), you can actually find one that is not too expensive (ie your budget wont crash within 6 months), about the style/features/size you wanted AND that you can make your home in (like you’ll feel ok, safe, proud etc to live in).

And as I feel about the market, there is NO inventory right now. NONE. I’m not saying that there are no good houses, or no deals, and that no buyer can be happy. I’m just saying that many people are not buying what they choose, but rather the less worse choice left on the shelf. (in the best case, the only problem being that it’s more expensive that they should afford)

Inventory is when you have time to visit the houses on the market and decide for yourself which one is the first choice, and which one is worth your time of making an offer. Lack of inventory is when you depend on Alex pocket listings to actually have a chance to visit something before it flies the “pending” sign on the door.

Lack of inventory is when you have a specific list of criterias, and only one property a year fits the list – creating the urgency to buy, the urgency to overbid, and high prices.

Reasonable inventory is when you have 2-5 such properties a year. So if you miss that one, you can reasonnably wait for the next one. And right now, there is a good portion of the districts that see only a couple of properties coming on the market each year. (GGHts, WestP to name only two).

SF is not a big even suburb where you can live anywhere save transportation differences. Districts are different, offer different property types and are not exchangeable.

So when you look for a SFH in district 1, you might extend to district 2 – but certainly not to district 4, 8 or 9. So it’s not the total of 85 which matters, but the breakdown written by fluj.

Or to have another take on the question. There will be inventory when talks will REQUIRE to specify “which” property or “which” address you talk about. Right now, I can say “THE” so and so house, and everybody will know exactly which one it is – simply because it’s the only one on the market. (and the “normal” properties move/sell faster than the buzz can travel across the city)

[Editor's note: Well said Sophie!]

Somebody answered your particular question in an article I read the other day. I’ll try to see if I can find it.

For condos there are 41 listings using the same metric. As you might expect other ‘hoods have opened up.

1. 9 Richmond. Three east of Funston.

2. 10 Sunset — this is quite pricy for a Sunset condo, right?

3. 1 — Lake Merced hill, 1900 feet for 775K

4. 4 here, all large Diamond Heights with big views

5. 7 here. Ranging from 795K on Oak in the Haight to three ~1.2M condos, one each in Ashbury Terrace, Dolores Heights, and Noe Valley.

6. 3 here. 856 Baker is pretty nice, reduced from $1.2M to 1.095M.

7. One, 2413 Franklin for 899K — this is a fixer in shell condition

8. one, 950 Columbus # 17 1776 sq ft for 975K.

9. 4, one Bernal and three Potrero Hill.

3 br 2 ba condos would be really pricey and few, no? I’ll have a look if you like.

Perhaps, if this was the case, a search for condos specifically would be interesting as well.