San Francisco: America’s Best City to Be a Real Estate Professional
- San Francisco ranks as the top U.S. market for real estate professionals in 2018.
- San Jose, Fremont, Oakland, and Santa Rosa all count among the 10 best places to be a real estate professional.
- Four of the nation’s five fastest-paced real estate markets are located in the Bay Area.
The Bay Area continued to see intense demand for real estate in the first quarter of 2018, with more than 70 percent of homes selling for premiums in March. And that demand is translating into booming business for local real estate professionals, with half of the 10 best cities for the vocation located in the Bay Area.
That’s according to a recent analysis by WalletHub, which ranked nearly 180 American cities on a 100-point scale using 18 criteria to determine where real estate professionals can enjoy optimal careers in 2018. Individual gauges of a market’s friendliness to industry professionals include common real estate metrics — such as median sales price, pace of sales, and average premiums that buyers pay — as well measures of career success, including job opportunities and median annual wages.
San Francisco takes the No. 1 spot on this year’s list of the best markets for real estate professionals, earning a total score of 63.88 and ranking as the second-best U.S. housing market for industry opportunity (and competition). The City by the Bay ties Irvine and Fremont for the highest median sales price in the U.S. and ties San Jose and Seattle for the fewest days on market. Additionally, San Francisco has the third overall highest housing-market-health indicator in the nation behind two Texas cities.
Buoyed by the fastest-growing annual home prices in the first quarter of 2018 — about 33 percent — San Jose counts as America’s No. 3 best place to be a real estate professional in 2018, with a 59.65. Besides the aforementioned rapid pace of sales, San Jose ranks in the top five nationwide for both the highest median sales price and the healthiest overall real estate market.
Three other Bay Area cities landed in the top 10: No. 4 Fremont, No. 5 Oakland, and No. 7 Santa Rosa. Besides tying for highest median sales price, Fremont ranks in the top five for the fewest days on market and the highest overall housing market health, while Oakland also places in the top five for fastest pace of sales.
WalletHub asked a panel of experts, most of whom are professors, for the top indicators of an ideal market for real estate professionals, and some of their answers underscore why the Bay Area is such a place: It has a thriving, diverse economy; top-rated schools; and an excellent quality of life.
(Photo: iStock/KatarzynaBialasiewicz)