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San Francisco Hits New Record in Median Home Price

The new median home price is $1.225 million. Last May, median home prices hadn’t even cleared the million-dollar mark

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It's becoming ever more expensive to live in the tech boomtown by the Bay.

Getty Images
It's becoming ever more expensive to live in the tech boomtown by the Bay.
Getty Images

Things are looking up in San Francisco. Way, way up. The latest report from Paragon Real Estate shows the city by the Bay hitting a new record in median home sales price at $1.225 million. It’s been a meteoric rise. This time last year, median home prices hadn’t even cleared the million-dollar mark. The city, a magnet for start-ups like Twitter, Uber, and Airbnb, has been on an economic roll of late. Tech employees as well as savvy investors are snapping up real estate. The remarkable upward trend in the new boom town has drawn the interest of the Bravo reality TV show “Million Dollar Listing,” which is adding a San Francisco spinoff that will air in July. But if economic forecasters are correct, we haven’t even touched the top of the market. “I feel we still have a ways to go in this cycle,” luxury real estate specialist Joel Goodrich said. Goodrich takes a global approach when viewing the market. He noted that economists in The Wall Street Journal forecasting survey see economic growth through 2016; he also pointed to the International Monetary Fund’s assessment that global employment rates won’t be reached until 2017. “So if those predictions hold true, we may have one and a half to two and a half more years in this current economic up cycle,” he adds. True, San Franciscans are experiencing sticker shock on homes in neighborhoods like Bay View — a historically disadvantaged and marginalized community, which has hit a median price of $610,000, making it one of the most affordable neighborhoods in the city. On the other end of the spectrum, the ever desirable Sea Cliff neighborhood recently experienced a bidding war over one $11 million property billed as a “fixer upper.” Still, the prize for priciest places goes to Pacific Heights and Presidio Heights. With stunning hilltop views, single family mansions, and walkable, lively neighborhoods it’s not surprising that these homes come at a cost — a cool $5.995 million median price. Crazy as it may sound, San Francisco looks like a bargain — at least by global standards. “Our prices in the ultra-luxury market are now trending to $3,000 per square foot from $2,000,” Goodrich says. It sounds like a lot. Until you hear what’s charged overseas: “Still well below Hong Kong's $11,000, so we definitely have a ways to go!” And that way is up, up, up.

Correction: The latest Wall Street Journal economic forecasting survey had a panel of 62 economists. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said the survey was of 50 economists. (May 18, 2015)