My younger brother has made several attempts to buy a house in the Bay Area, but has been outbid every time. It’s an aggressive real estate market. So I was curious to see how it compares to other markets in the country. Redfin publishes 90-day averages for the regions where it operates, so I’ve graphed these data. As you can see, San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland appear to be in a league of their own.

Note that Redfin does not have a presence in NYC, so those data are not provided. To be consistent, I decided not to calculate them using another source. But for comparison’s sake, San Francisco homes sold for a median of $845/sq ft this summer, while NYC homes sold for a median of $497/sq ft (according to Zillow). That said, the medians in some parts of NYC are >$1500. It’s quite neighborhood dependent. Regardless, these graphs reflect the difficulty of purchasing a home in the Bay. More offers, more bidding wars, more expensive homes per sq ft. If you’re trying to buy a house there, good luck!

Data source: https://www.redfin.com/