Prices, inventory, and demand — distilled every month into one clear verdict: buyer’s market or seller’s. The investor’s read, before you make an offer.
Yes, if you negotiate. Buyers have the upper hand in Oakland right now.
You have the upper hand in Oakland. Most homes for sale still have no buyer. Sellers are competing for you. Use it.
Only 49 out of every 100 homes for sale have found a buyer. The other 51 are still waiting. Your offer may be the only one on the table. Few sellers are dropping their price. Asking prices are holding firm. Your discount will come from one stale listing, not from the whole market.
A typical Oakland home takes 41 days to find a buyer. Half of them take even longer. That is 12% faster than a year ago. Those sellers are paying to own a house they want to sell. Search for homes listed 60+ days ago. There are 532 homes for sale in Oakland. That is 2.8 times the tightest month on record, but below the peak of 809. Supply is shrinking against last year.
Asking prices are 16.5% below their May 2023 peak. You are not buying at the top. Prices stopped falling about a year ago. They are flat now. Waiting will not get you a cheaper house. It might still get you a more motivated seller. Oakland prices rose in only 62 of the last 108 months. This market goes up and down. Timing matters here. Growth will not rescue a bad price.
The discount is already here. It is not getting bigger. Buy now while sellers are still weak. Waiting for a lower price stopped working a year ago.
Yes, if you negotiate. Buyers have the upper hand in Oakland right now. 0.49 out of every 100 homes for sale have a buyer, 10% of sellers have cut their price, and a typical home takes 41 days to sell.
Asking prices are 16.5% below their May 2023 peak. You are not buying at the top. Prices stopped falling about a year ago. They are flat now. Waiting will not get you a cheaper house. It might still get you a more motivated seller.
-3.0%/yr. 1 year: -3.5% · 5 years: -3.1% · ten years: +1.8%. Do not use the ten-year rate. Most of that growth landed in the 2020 and 2021 boom. The five-year rate is what Oakland does without one. Underwrite closer to -3.1%. Measure growth per square foot. Oakland median list price grew 1.1% a year, but price per square foot grew 1.8%. The gap is smaller homes, not weaker growth. The house you buy will not shrink. The one-year rate is a timing signal. It is not an underwriting input.
A typical Oakland home takes 41 days to find a buyer. Half of them take even longer. That is 12% faster than a year ago. Those sellers are paying to own a house they want to sell. Search for homes listed 60+ days ago.
94612. Only 7 out of 100 homes there have a buyer, 26% have cut their price, and a typical home takes 64 days to sell.
Where it isn't: 94618 ranks #2,972 in the country for buyer demand. Expect the least room to negotiate there.
No ZIP is on both lists. In Oakland you pick leverage or growth. You cannot have both.
| ZIP | $/sqft, 2 yrs | $/sqft now | Buyers per home | For sale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 94619 | -0.4% | $579 | 0.41 | 42 |
| 94618 | -2.8% | $676 | 0.59 | 19 |
| 94621 | -4.2% | $455 | 0.68 | 36 |
| 94610 | -5.1% | $588 | 0.62 | 40 |
| 94602 | -6.7% | $545 | 0.48 | 40 |
Computed from each ZIP's own ten-year history. ZIPs with fewer than 10 homes for sale are excluded: a median across a handful of listings is noise, not a signal.
Closest matches on asking price, price per square foot, days to sell, buyer demand, and price cuts.
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