As of early February, the government shutdown is over - at least for a couple more weeks - the stock market has recovered dramatically from its late 2018 plunge, and interest rates are well down from November highs. A good number of large, local, high-tech “unicorns” continue to plan IPOs in 2019. All these are positive economic indicators for the Bay Area real estate market.
However, indicators have proven to be volatile over the past 5 months, and their future direction should not be taken for granted. As detailed in recent reports, there was some cooling in the market in the second half of 2018, after a very hot spring. The month of January typically has the fewest sales of the year, sales which mostly reflect activity during the December market doldrums: We don’t consider its data to be a reliable indicator of conditions or trends. But activity is picking up, and the beginning of the spring sales season - typically the strongest market of the year - will soon provide more direction as to where the market is heading.
