There are four cities in California where more than half the properties are valued above $1 million.
San Francisco: 89% homes worth $1,000,000 or more
San Jose: 86%
Anaheim: 55%
Oakland: 55%
In February, 8.2% of all homes across the country were valued at more than $1 million, or approximately 1 in 12 homes, Redfin discovered. This is almost twice the number of million-dollar homes before the pandemic.
The pandemic created a new housing crisis. Homes are becoming more expensive for first-time buyers.
Homeowners are enjoying the benefits of rising home values. They have more equity to use when purchasing another home using proceeds from the sale of their current home.
Taylor Marr, Redfin deputy chief economic economist, said that the rise in home values has made many homeowners millionaires but also made homeownership unattainable for many other Americans.
Incomes don’t keep up
This analysis of million-dollar home prices is based upon a Redfin model. It uses public records, MLS data, and Redfin pricing calculations to calculate the value of 85 million properties in the country.
Although real estate prices have skyrocketed in the last two years, incomes aren’t growing at the same rate.
The median weekly earnings of U.S. workers have risen almost 12% since 2019, the time before the pandemic.
However, the median price of a U.S. home has increased 25% over the same time.
Homeowners are also asking for more: In February , the median listing price of properties was $392,000, a record. This is a 13% increase over the previous year and almost 27% higher than the February 2020 pandemic.
Million-dollar listings have soared
Only a few cities have seen a sharp increase in the number of million-dollar properties they own, according to Redfin’s analysis.
Anaheim is the most valuable, with 55.3% of houses worth at least $1million in February compared to 27% two years ago.
San Diego saw the second-largest jump in million-dollar homes, at 22 percent. Seattle saw the third largest increase with its share increasing 21 percentage points to nearly 37%.
Anaheim’s influx in million-dollar homes is due to a shortage in inventory, Redfin stated. Anaheim saw a drop of more than 40% in homes for sale compared to a year ago, which was one of the largest inventory drops in the country.
“This week, one my buyers offered $1.57million for a Costa Mesa property listed at $1.5million,” Linda Tessitore, Redfin realty agent, said. She was referring to the California town of Anaheim. “
