The housing market in Oakland and suburban parts of the Bay Area is recovering at a faster rate than in San Francisco or San Jose, according to a new analysis from Redfin, the technology-powered real estate brokerage. While pending home sales and the number of new listings have begun to pick up throughout the Bay Area in early May after a drastic drop in April, homebuyer demand is strongest in Oakland, where homes tend to be larger and less expensive, with more outdoor space.
More than 72% of Redfin.com users inside the city of San Francisco searched for homes outside the city in April 2020, up from 67.8% a year earlier. The increase came while companies such as Menlo Park-based Facebook and San Francisco-based Twitter were under shelter-in-place orders, even prior to announcing permanent work-from-home policies.
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“The trend toward the suburbs will grow stronger and stronger as the pandemic continues and work-from-home culture becomes more entrenched. Places like Oakland are capturing people who are leaving San Francisco and San Jose because if employees are able to work remotely three or four days a week, a longer commute is well worth the trade for more space,” said Redfin lead economist Taylor Marr. “Homebuyer interest is already shifting towards larger single-family homes with bigger yards. As a result, we expect prices to grow faster in the suburbs. That’s likely to be especially true in the Bay Area, where homes in Oakland, Berkeley, Walnut Creek and farther-flung suburbs are expensive, but prices aren’t as sky-high as San Francisco.”
Home prices in Oakland rose 3.4% to $787,000 in the month ending May 11. Meanwhile in San Francisco, home prices declined 3.2% year over year to $1,496,000 in the four weeks ending on May 11. It was the only one of the 85 largest metros Redfin tracks to experience a year-over-year price decline in April.
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