How will the election affect the market?

A: The real estate market in the Bay Area is having tremendous trouble. Multifamily rents have dropped almost 30% in San Francisco. San Jose is in trouble too as it was just surpassed as the 10th largest city in the U. S. by Austin, Texas.

Joe Biden recently discussed raising income taxes north of 60% in California and that would disincentivize many from investing there. If people aren’t spending the money, then the market isn’t moving. San Francisco has seen a huge slowdown in their number of transactions, which isn’t good.

Obviously, San Francisco is a Democratic city within a Democratic state, but business owners are becoming frustrated with that. Elon Musk just bought 2,000 acres in Austin, Texas to build the largest factory in the world, expressing dissatisfaction with San Francisco on Twitter. The election could exacerbate that problem for the city, continuing the exodus from San Francisco to cities along the Sun Belt with burgeoning technology scenes.

If Biden wins, I think it’s going to cause even more problems, because a lot of the business owners will be even more disincentivized to keep their companies there. If the tech industry leaves the city, it will pose an issue for many years to come.

Ari Rastegar, Rastegar Property

Company, 5127297777, www.connect.rastegarproperty.com.

A: Every year, the real estate market slows in November. But as we are all painfully aware, this is not like any other year, and this is not like any normal election cycle. Nerves are frayed and we are seeing that in the real estate market. Many buyers are choosing to wait until after the election to make a move.

Partially it has to do with watching the market and rates postelection, but it’s also a lack of emotional bandwidth. Several buyers say they just can’t think about buying because they are all-consumed with the upcoming election. Concern for the future is certainly a factor but sheer election exhaustion is keeping some from moving forward.

The overwhelming majority of this city hopes it goes one way and if it does, we should have a busy fall but even if it doesn’t, having the election in the rearview mirror will be good for the Bay Area real estate market.

Greggory OnzoTasher, Vanguard Properties, 4156095451, greggory@vanguardproperties.com.

A: With low mortgage rates, Bay Area real estate has continued to push forward even with the upcoming election. Historically, election years often negatively affect the stock market and in turn hurt consumer confidence in the economy — causing sellers to delay their sale and making buyers nervous to purchase.

However, real estate in the Bay Area is still moving forward. No one can accurately predict the future, as COVID19 in 2020 has reminded us. Even if the real estate market slows down due to the election, I feel it would be temporary.

Many buyers and sellers might be cautiously waiting but despite a slowdown, the past few months have shown that people still need to buy or sell as life events march on regardless. The election taking place is no different.

Ron Abta, Polaris Realty, 4155957661,

ron@polarisre.com.