This Northern California city is the top U.S. destination among homebuyers looking to relocate
A "For Sale" sign in front of a home in Sacramento, California, US, on Monday, July 3, 2023. The Mortgage Bankers Association is scheduled to release mortgage applications figures on July 6. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
SAN FRANCISCO - New figures show that nationwide, Sacramento was the most searched-for destination among homebuyers looking to relocate, while San Francisco was home to one of the top cities that homebuyers were looking to leave.
Migration trends identified by residential real estate brokerage Redfin also showed that California was the top state homebuyers searched to leave.
The top states people searched to relocate to included Florida, Arizona, and North Carolina.
The analysis covered the period from February to April of this year and was based on a sample of some 2 million Redfin users who searched for homes across more than 100 major U.S. metro areas, the company said. Those included in the dataset viewed at least 10 homes for sale in a three-month period.
Year-over-year declines
Redfin’s latest figures also show a year-over-year decline in home prices in six of the nine Bay Area counties.
By the numbers:
Alameda County saw the biggest drop of 4.3% with a median home price of $1,167,500.
Contra Costa County saw a similar decline at 4.2%, though its median home price was much lower at $829,000.
Solano (-1.6%), Napa (-1.1%), San Mateo (-0.89%), and Marin (-0.4%) counties also saw year-over-year declines, though there were large differences in their median prices.
Solano County had a median of $575,500.
Napa County's median was $920,000.
San Mateo County had a median of $1,665,000.
Marin County's median was $1,543,750.
Year-over-year increases
San Francisco saw the Bay Area’s biggest increase from a year ago at 3.9%, with a median of $1,455,000.
Santa Clara County’s increase was 3.6%. The county also had the highest median home price in the Bay Area at $1,750,000.
Compare that with Sonoma County, with the lowest median in the Bay Area of $828,353. The county saw an increase of 1.4% last month from a year ago.
Dig deeper:
Other notable findings showed that Sunnyvale was the city with the fastest growing sales price in all of California, with home prices up almost 30% compared to last year.
Sunnyvale's median price was $2.3 million last month, according to Redfin.
Berkeley had the fourth-fastest sales growth, up almost 20%, putting the median at almost $1.6 million.
Danville also made the top 10 list of California metros that saw a jump in sales prices.
In seventh place, the Contra Costa County city had a 15% spike in the sale price compared to last year. It also saw a nearly 15% decline in the number of homes sold.
Danville's median price was $2.3 million.
Bay Area cities identified as ‘most competitive’
The Bay Area took every slot in Redfin’s list of top 10 "most competitive" cities in the state.
The real estate company compiled its list based on the most homes that received multiple offers, often with waived contingencies. Redfin then scored the cities on a 0 to 100 scale.
The metros deemed "most competitive" fell in the 90-100 range.
Top 10 Most Competitive Cities in California
1. Santa Clara
2. Sunnyvale
3. Alameda
4. Daly City
5. Livermore
6. Mountain View
7. Berkeley
8. Danville
9. Castro Valley
10. San Ramon
(Source: Redfin)
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