Bay Area has 37 cities with $1M starter homes
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So pretty and so very pricey. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The San Francisco metro area has 37 cities where the typical starter home costs $1 million or more, the second most in the nation, per new Zillow data shared with Axios.
The big picture: The Bay Area is among the most expensive places in the U.S. to buy a home. Only the New York City metro area (63) has more cities where entry-level homeownership crosses the million-dollar threshold.
- California leads the nation with 105 cities, more than any other state by a wide margin.
State of play: Million-dollar starter homes remain the exception nationally, but affordability challenges continue due to years of housing shortages.
- A record 242 American cities now feature seven-figure purchases for entry level homes — up from 226 last year and 80 in February 2020, before the COVID pandemic, Zillow's report shows.
Zoom in: The AI boom is supercharging demand in the Bay Area's already expensive housing market.
- The frenzy has become so intense that one recently listed $3 million home in Duboce Triangle advertised that the seller would consider OpenAI or Anthropic stock as payment — perhaps the clearest sign yet that AI wealth is reshaping real estate prices.
By the numbers: It's no surprise the four top $1 million-plus cities in the Bay Area as of April are also among the richest ZIP codes in the U.S.
Check out these staggering Bay Area starter home prices:
- Atherton: $4,965,239
- Los Altos Hills: $4,692,338
- Hillsborough: $4,131,575
- Los Altos: $3,442,267
Zoom out: Meanwhile, the typical starter home nationwide is $198,649, making one in Atherton roughly 25 times more expensive than national counterparts.
- Zillow defines a starter home as a property in the lowest third of home values in a given market — meaning many of these seven-figure homes aren't luxury estates, but the entry point to homeownership.