by Wolf Richter
Wolf Street
There is a “housing shortage” and an “inventory shortage” until there suddenly isn’t.
In San Francisco, the erstwhile housing “shortage” and inventory “shortage,” hyped to the nth degree by the industry, has now turned into a historic inventory glut.
There were 2,370 homes listed for sale in San Francisco in the week ended September 27, up 73% from the same week a year ago, according to data from Redfin. About two-thirds of them were condos. The chart shows the comparisons of 2020 to the prior three years. Note the seasonal bulge of active listings after Labor Day in prior years, and how 2020 completely blew that away: