As in our previous two quarterly analyses of Bay Area real estate markets where home prices are rising the most on an annual basis, most of the 70-plus Northern California communities in which Pacific Union operates recorded price growth in the third quarter. The exclusive San Mateo County communities of Atherton and Woodside made the list for the third straight time, while all 10 San Francisco districts posted appreciation from the third quarter of 2017.
The analysis below uses third-quarter MLS data to determine where prices are rising the fastest in the Bay Area. Note that only single-family homes are included in this study, and that communities with less than five transactions in the most recently completed quarter were excluded. Check out the top 10:
- San Francisco District 8 — up by 109.7 percent — Single-family home prices in San Francisco’s prized District 8 — which includes neighborhoods such as Telegraph Hill, North Beach, and Russian Hill — ended the third quarter at $4.1 million. It’s worth noting that there were only five sales in District 8 in the third quarter, including a $5.75 million home that sold in one day.
- Woodside — up by 49.1 percent — After taking the No. 1 spot for the highest year-over-year appreciation in the second quarter, Woodside fell a place but still registered healthy price gains. The San Mateo County town’s hefty $3.8 million sales price was actually down a bit from the second quarter of this year.
- St. Helena — up by 45.2 percent — With a median sales price of $1,444,575, just four of the nearly 40 homes sold in this Napa County city during the third quarter sold for less than seven figures.
- Angwin — up by 44.2 percent — The Napa County community of Angwin has less than 4,000 residents, so it makes sense that not many homes usually change hands in a given quarter — just six in the third quarter. The median sales price of $1,027,500 is the highest registered in Angwin since the second quarter of 2016.
- San Francisco District 7 — up by 37.1 percent — Home to desirable neighborhoods such as Pacific Heights and Cow Hollow, the median sales price in District 7 ended the third quarter at $4.9 million, down from the three-year peak recorded in the second quarter of this year.
- San Francisco District 6 — up by 25.2 percent — With a median sales price of just more than $3 million, District 6 includes San Francisco neighborhoods such as Lower Pacific Heights, Alamo Square, and Hayes Valley. As in neighboring District 7, home prices hit a three-year high in the second quarter.
- Atherton — up by 23.8 percent — Even with a median sales price of $6.4 million in the third quarter, homes in this elite Silicon Valley enclave were more than $2 million less expensive than they were in the first quarter of this year. Nearly one-fourth of the 17 home sales recorded in the first quarter were higher than $10 million.
- Los Altos Hills — up by 19.8 percent — The median sales price in Los Altos Hills was $4.7 million in the third quarter, with only one home trading for less than $3 million.
- Kenwood — up by 19.2 percent — Although just five homes changed hands in the tiny Sonoma Valley community of Kenwood in the third quarter, a $5 million sale helped push the median sales price up to $1.55 million.
- Sonoma — up by 18.7 percent — The median sales price in the city of Sonoma ended the third quarter at $880,000, consistent with numbers recorded since the final quarter of 2017.
(Photo: iStock/heyengel)