SF & Other Bay Area Real Estate Markets in Country’s Top Ten

SF in the top ten real estate markets in the US? There’s no surprise there. It would be logically expected in our market of low home/condo inventory and high buyer demand. According to the realtor.com Hotness-Index that covers national real estate sales over specific time periods the number 1 area in the country in January 2017 is the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward metro region. Number 2 is our neighbors in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro area. So, we’ve got numero uno and dos all tied up.

But that’s not all. Other northern California neighbors of ours are also dominating the top ten list. What is number 3 on the list? Vallejo. Yes our cousins just a quick drive to the northeast. Sacramento is number 6. Yuba City is number 7. Stockton is number 9, and Fresno is number 10. That is 7 out of 10 of the hottest markets in the entire country right here in our backyard.

What’s going on? The chief economist for realtor.com, Jonathan Smoke, noted, “Buyers who are challenged by affordability are starting to look to the outlying areas. The average down payment in 2016 in San Francisco and San Jose was $150,000 or more. The average down payment in Fresno and Yuba City was under $28,000. That’s quite a bit of difference in terms of what it takes to become a homeowner.”