Berkeley is Most Expensive College Town in America, Says Realtor

Posted by Staff writer media@realtytoday.com ) on Aug 27, 2015 06:20 AM EDT

Close

more big

Realtor named Berkeley, California as America's most expensive college town.

College towns in the U.S. are fast becoming a unique place to live given its vibrant nightlife, cultural events and numerous job opportunities, states Realtor. Given those factors, the real estate site decided to list down the most expensive college towns in America.

To come up with the list, Realtor's data team ranked more than 300 college towns by median home price. The site's data team also added two metrics for a college town to make it to the list. One criteria is that the area should have student residents of more than 5,000. The second is that the student residents should make up more than 20 percent of the town's total population.

Given those metrics, Realtor ranked Berkeley as number one in the most expensive college town list. According to the site, Berkeley's housing market has soared, similar to the rest of the Bay area, given the tech boom. The current home media price in the area is posted at $849,000. Berkeley is also home to the University of California, Berkeley City College and other theological institutions.

Other college towns who made it to Realtor's top five most expensive list are Santa Cruz and San Luis Obispo in California, with median home prices of $814,000 and $690,000, respectively. Colorado's Boulder town landed at the third spot with a median of $789,000, while Massachusetts' Cambridge is at number five with a median home price of more than $685,000.

However, a report compiled by Livability.com ranked Berkeley as number 4 on the list of Top 10 Best College Towns for the year. The site's ranking is aimed to provide students the most livable and supportive places to live, both academically and socially. To come up with the list, the site shared that their editors analyzed data from various sources such as the Census and Esri. Other metrics included cities with high population of 25 to 29-year-olds, towns with Division I athletics and areas where education played a dominant role in employment. The site also looked at rental housing availability and affordability.

Based on Livability.com's Best College Town list, Manhattan in northeastern Kansas landed at the number one spot, followed by Durham in North Carolina and Columbia in Massachusetts.

Meanwhile, Bowling Green in Kentucky nabbed the 10th spot in the list.