Bay Area leads nation on $1M+ homes as piece of market

The Bay Area leads the nation in home sales priced at $1 million or more as a percentage of the market, with San Jose topping the list, according to a recent study.

In greater San Jose, 61 percent of homes sold for $1 million or more in 2020, according to the Inspection Support Network study reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. The metro area made up of San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley had the nation’s second-highest percentage of deals at or above $1 million, at 49 percent.

Low housing supply and high demand have made $1 million home listings common in a region unlikely to see declining home prices, even amid climbing mortgage interest rates.

The Golden State held four of the top five most expensive metro areas with more than 1 million residents.

Metro Los Angeles and San Diego came in third and fourth, respectively, followed by Seattle, where about 15 percent of home sales went for $1 million or more during the first year of the pandemic.

About 4 percent of homes in the Sacramento metropolitan area sold at or above $1 million, placing it at No. 11.

Overall, more than 1 in 5 homes in California sold for more than $1 million, according to the report. Only Hawaii (17.5 percent), and Massachusetts (10 percent) had double-digit percentages of $1 million home sales.

Eight of the nation’s 10 metro areas with the overall highest percentages of $1 million home sales are in California, according to the report. All of the metro areas, which include Santa Cruz (37 percent), Los Angeles (28 percent) and San Diego (19 percent), are either in the Bay Area or along the state’s coast.

For comparison, in metropolitan New York and metro Boston, 12 percent of homes sold for $1 million or more.

In Napa, the 25 percent of homes that sold above $1 million also had the highest median property value of the state’s top 10 areas — $1,545,000, in 2020. Like other regions, the Wine Country enclave saw overall median home sale prices rise during the pandemic, from $600,000 in January 2020 to $900,000 in March, according to Zillow.

The median property value in Greater San Jose was $1,455,000, in San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley $1,425,000, and in Greater Los Angeles, $1,405,000.

In the Bay Area, home prices in February rose 17 percent from the prior year to a median $1.1 million, even as sales plunged 20 percent.

Despite becoming an increasingly common price point in the Bay Area, the report also illustrated how uncommon $1 million home sales remain in California’s inland communities.

[San Francisco Chronicle] – Dana Bartholomew

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