California Boasts 80 Percent of the Nation’s Most Expensive ZIP Codes in 2018

San Mateo County’s Atherton ranks as America’s priciest ZIP code this year, with a median sales price of $6,700,000. Santa Monica, Palo Alto, Los Altos, and Portola Valley rank among the nation’s 10 most expensive real estate markets. San Francisco ties New York for the highest concentration of high-end U.S. housing markets on a city level, while Los Angeles has the most on a county...

Home Remodeling: How Much Can You Save by Doing It Yourself?

  Eight in 10 U.S. homeowners think that hiring an improvement professional is too expensive, but 68 percent say that the cost is preferable to doing the work themselves. Homeowners who renovate a kitchen, a bedroom, or a recreation room themselves can save more than $20,000. Do it yourself with caution: Almost half of all homeowners have undertaken an improvement project that ended poorly. Nearly half...

Home of the Week: Southern California’s Most Exclusive & Elevated Mountain Estate

Poised magnificently on the edge of Oak Glen’s untrammeled mountainscape community is the highest individually owned mountaintop compound in Southern California: The Eagle Crest Mountain Estate. Ascending from 5,000 to 9,000 feet on an exclusively-owned parcel of Little San Gorgonio Mountain, the very private and secluded 16,000-square-foot rustic chic chalet boasts a 4100-square foot garage with workshop along with 845 contiguous acres of land that...

Real Estate Roundup: The Humble Homes That Birthed the World’s Biggest Tech Companies

Here’s a look at recent news of interest to homebuyers, home sellers, and the home-curious. A LOOK AT THE STRUCTURES THAT ONCE HOUSED THE BAY AREA’S ECONOMIC POWERHOUSES The fabled HP garage. We’ve all heard the story about Hewlett-Packard tracing its origin to a humble garage in Palo Alto, but do you know exactly where that garage is located? How about the address of the...

Happy Thanksgiving From Compass!

All of your friends at Compass wish you a very happy Thanksgiving 2018. We hope that the holiday finds you with much to feel thankful for, and whether you are traveling or staying home, we hope that you are spending quality time with family and friends. We’ll be taking a break for a few days to enjoy the holiday ourselves, but check back on Monday,...

Survey: Most Americans Think That the Housing Market Is Cooling

Seventy-five percent of respondents to a recent survey think that the nation’s housing market is beginning to slow. More than 20 percent of Californians believe that the housing market is cooling, the most of any state. Less than 40 percent of millennials who do not already own a home think that now is a good time to buy one. Three-quarters of Americans believe that their...

Compass’ October 2018 Real Estate Update

The median sales price rose from October 2017 in most Northern California regions in which Compass does business, except for Sonoma Valley, where it was down by almost 10 percent. Elsewhere, annual appreciation ranged from 0.3 percent in Sonoma County to more than 25 percent for single-family homes in Lake Tahoe. Click on the image accompanying each of our regions below for an expanded look...

Video: October Bay Area Home Sales Report

Check out this short animation, which offers highlights from October’s Bay Area home sales report. To read the full analysis by Compass Chief Economist Selma Hepp, click here.   

Bay Area Affordable Housing Inventory Jumps in October, With Few Takers

 Executive Summary: Bay Area home sales dipped by 8 percent year over year in October; however, the 19 percent increase from September was the highest monthly gain between September and October going back to 1990. Santa Clara County and East Bay counties continued to lead the sales declines, while San Francisco activity remained steady on an annual basis. Sales of higher-priced homes — $2 million-plus...