Bay Area has six of the nation’s ten most expensive home markets

PARSIPPANY, N.J.
November 28, 2012 5:43am

What’s the difference between living in Los Altos in Silicon Valley and Delhi in the Central Valley?

Just $1,583,834.

That’s the difference in the median prices of homes in the two cities that are just 112 miles apart, according to a new report Wednesday from Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC, which is listing the media prices it has found in 2,500 markets.

Several of the nation's most expensive real estate markets are in Northern California, it says. Google, Apple, Facebook and Stanford University are all located within 15 minutes of this year's most expensive market, Los Altos, where the average listing price of a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home is $1,706,688.

"The success of many of our native tech companies has shined a spotlight on Silicon Valley and our real estate market in the San Francisco Bay Area," says Rick Turley, president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in the San Francisco Bay Area. "Listing prices in our market are a product of ongoing high demand, projected population growth and the low inventory levels of homes in what is one of the most desirable locations to live."

Lowest median in the Central Valley is in Delhi in Stanislaus County where the money that fell off the table in Los Altos might buy a four-bedroom, two-bath home: $122,854.

In contrast, the most affordable market this year is Redford, Mich., where a similar home, four-bedrooms, two-bathrooms, is listed at $60,490 -- a listing price difference of more than $1.6 million from Los Altos. In fact, says the report, 28 homes could be purchased in Redford for the price of a similar home in Los Altos.

Overall, the report found the average listing price of a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home in the U.S. to be $292,152. Affordability remains strong in many markets across the country as 36 percent of the markets analyzed by the report had an average home listing price of less than $200,000 for four-bedroom, two-bathroom homes.

The five most expensive markets are all in California, with four in the San Francisco Bay Area. Los Altos tops the list, followed by Newport Beach ($1,658,000), Saratoga ($1,582,434), Menlo Park ($1,506,909) and Palo Alto ($1,495,364). But even with these high priced markets, California was not the most expensive state. The average listing price of a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home in California ($431,625) is less than both Hawaii ($742,551) and Massachusetts ($489,063).