The past year of home sales does not give any indication that the Bay Area housing market is ever going to slow down. As much as you may hear about people leaving the state, the demand for housing here is still higher than ever despite the rising prices. The total number of single family home transactions in Alameda County increased by over 17% from 2020. On average, home buyers are still paying above a home’s listing price in just about every city within the Bay Area. There aren’t many major metropolitan areas in the country where that can be said about its housing market.
Alameda County home buyers paid an average of 13% above their home’s listing price last year. This is a 7% jump from 2020. Albany and Berkeley were tops among the list of cities where its buyers paid the highest premium for their homes.
This may have been the craziest year of overpayments. There were a total of 60 homes that sold for $1M+ more than its original asking price! The majority of those were in Oakland (30), Berkeley (17), and Piedmont (10).
A buyer in Oakland paid nearly 3X’s the home’s original listing price, and it wasn’t even a livable property.
This 1 bedroom | 1 bathroom | 712 SQFT home sold for $651k after being listed for just $220k. It needed to be completely torn down and rebuilt. These challenges did not stop this buyer from acquiring it. Hopefully they have a great contractor!
Another buyer in Berkeley paid double the home’s list price. At least that home had some of the most breathtaking views and was very tastefully updated. Just about every city had at least one home sell for an additional 50% of its listing price.
There were six cities within Alameda County alone that reached over $1B in sales volume. Of the 17 cities within the county limits, 14 of them have average sales prices of over $1M. There was a 20% increase of the median home sales price from 2020 to 2021.
Piedmont tops the list of most expensive cities in Alameda County for 2021. The average and median home prices are the highest of all, and by a significant margin. Pleasanton and Berkeley are $1M+ cheaper based on these metrics. The most expensive home was also purchased in Piedmont for $10M. Not far behind was a home in Fremont, which sold for $8.68M. The highest sale in 2020 was only $6M.
If you’re looking for a bargain, both San Leandro and San Lorenzo were the most affordable cities within Alameda County. Hayward is not far behind as well. However Oakland still had the most inventory of single family homes for under $700k, followed by Hayward and San Leandro. Also, buyers are only paying 7% or $50k over the listing price in San Lorenzo on average.
One of the more noticeable changes year over year is the reduction of the days on market for homes in Alameda County. This number dropped down to an average of just 15 days, a 30% change from 2020. This means homes are getting into contract faster than ever! This is especially apparent in cities like Dublin, Pleasanton, and Livermore, where the DOM averages just 8-9 days.
Last year may have been a record-setting year for Alameda County and the Bay Area as a whole. Time will tell if the craziness continues in 2022, but Bay Area home buyers do not seem to be phased by the bidding wars and rapid increase in prices. Stay tuned for the reports on other Bay Area counties. If you’d like to obtain the information sooner, feel free to contact me @ LLee@famileerealty.com.
Laurence Lee is a Real Estate Broker serving the entire Bay Area. He owns and manages his own brokerage, Familee Realty, which generates multi-million dollars of sales volume annually. To learn more, please visit www.FamileeRealty.com. All sales data from this article is from the MLSListings MLS.
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