Are you ready for the easiest real estate question of the moment? Among the 100 largest metros, which two U.S. cities have had the largest increase in the share of homes that cost at least $1 million since May 2012?
If you guessed San Francisco and San Jose (and who are we kidding, just about all of you probably guessed those) you are correct. As Trulia reports, in May 2012 the share of homes that were at least $1 million dollars in San Francisco was 19.6 percent. In May 2016, the share increased 37.8 percent to 57.4 percent. San Jose saw its shares of million-dollar homes rise from 17.4 percent to 46.3 percent, a 28.9 percent increase.
While these two cities are extreme examples, the share of million-dollar homes in the United States has almost doubled, from 1.6 percent in 2012 to 3 percent in 2016. As you might expect, even outside of San Francisco and San Jose, California dominated the list of specific housing markets with the biggest increases in million dollar homes.
In fact, seven of the top 10 markets are in California, including every city in the top five. Oakland, Orange County, and Los Angeles follow San Francisco and San Jose in third, fourth, and fifth place respectively.
The first non-California city on the list is Honolulu, Hawaii, in sixth place, with a 7.3 percent increase in its share of million dollar homes. New York (8) and Seattle (10) are the only other non-California cites on the list with corresponding increases of 4.9 percent and 4.5 percent.
For many of the cities on the list, Trulia has included active maps that mark million dollar homes in red for each year between 2012 and 2016. As the years on the maps change, the metros all begin to blush faster than a teenage girl who just received a compliment from her crush.
To view the entire list, as well as breakdowns of which neighborhoods within a given city have seen the largest increases of million dollar homes, plus the accompanying maps, follow the link below.
