Bay Area Remains Most Expensive Real Estate Market in US

The success of the technology industry and desirable location are continuing to influence home listing prices in the San Francisco Bay Area, elevating it to one of the priciest real estate markets in the country. Today, the Home Listing Report (HLR) revealing several of the country's most expensive real estate markets are in Northern California. Google, Apple, Facebook and Stanford University are all located within 15 minutes of this year's most expensive market, Los Altos, Calif.,where the average listing price of a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home is 1,706,688.

"The success of many of our native tech companies has shined aspotlight on Silicon Valley and our real estate market in the SanFrancisco Bay Area," said Rick Turley, president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in the San Francisco Bay Area. "Listing pricesin our market are a product of ongoing high demand, projectedpopulation growth and the low inventory levels of homes in what is one of the most desirable locations to live."

In contrast, the most affordable market this year is Redford, Mich.,where a similar home, four-bedrooms, two-bathrooms, is listed at $60,490 -- a listing price difference of more than 1.6 million. Infact, 28 homes can be purchased in Redford for the price of a similarhome in Los Altos.

Overall, the report found the average listing price of afour-bedroom, two-bathroom home in the U.S. to be 292,152. Affordability remains strong in many markets across the country as 36 percent of the markets analyzed by the report had an average homelisting price of less than 200,000 for four-bedroom, two-bathroom homes.

About America's Most Expensive Markets:

The five most expensive markets are all in California, with four inthe San Francisco Bay Area. Los Altos, Calif. tops the list, followedby Newport Beach (1,658,000), Saratoga (1,582,434), Menlo Park(1,506,909) and Palo Alto (1,495,364). But even with these highpriced markets, California was not the most expensive state. Theaverage listing price of a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home inCalifornia (431,625) is less than both Hawaii (742,551) and Massachusetts (489,063).