Top 7 Bay Area Zip Codes for Real Estate Investment

According to data released by RealtyTrac, 7 Bay Area Zip Codes rise to the top in terms of investment opportunities.

The Bay Area's most promising, up-and-coming neighborhoods are in the East Bay, according to an analysis by RealtyTrac.

That's not a coincidence, said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at real estate research firm RealtyTrac. The East Bay still has neighborhoods that are on the mend but often overlooked by real estate investors and home buyers.

The East Bay's strong showing comes as little surprise as that part of the Bay Area finds itself increasingly in the national limelight. The New York Times told its readers that the East Bay is among the 52 places around the globe that they need to visit in 2016.

"While the Bay Area's identity is dominated by beautiful, booming San Francisco, its soul increasingly seems to reside in the East Bay," the New York Times said, noting "Alameda County's glorious inland climate, thriving arts scene and a vibrant culinary culture."

RealtyTrac looked at several factors in more than 3,500 zip codes nationally, including the number of construction loans, which finance both residential and commercial projects; the profitability of house flipping; the percentage of millennials in the neighborhood; and the quality of a neighborhood's best school. (In this case, the researchers focused on finding neighborhoods where the best school was ranked below the state average. Improving schools are often a lagging indicator of an improving neighborhood.)

"Real estate investors and first-time homebuyers are looking for the best up-and-coming neighborhoods that might be bad but are recovering," Blomquist told the San Francisco Business Times.

"Many down-and-out neighborhood housing markets across the country are on the rebound thanks to a confluence of market forces working in their favor," Blomquist said in a RealtyTrac blog. "Tight inventory of homes for sale combined with a dearth of new home building is convincing buyers and investors to reconsider buying in what they once might have considered 'bad' neighborhoods."

Investors and home buyers still need to determine for themselves whether a troubled neighborhood has what Blomquist calls the "it" factor.

"This is a starting point," Blomquist said, saying that it's still necessary to drive through neighborhoods, talk to people and assess the restaurants and other amenities a neighborhood offers.