The First Republic Prestige Home Index for values of “San Francisco” homes worth more than $1.0 million and currently averaging $3.07 million ticked up 1.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013 and is 12.4 percent higher on a year-over-year basis, the greatest year-over-year gain since the fourth quarter of 2005.
The luxury home index is now within 0.4 percent of its peak in the third quarter of 2007, up 23.3 percent from the current cycle bottom which occurred in the first quarter of 2011.
Roughly 37 percent of all home sales in San Francisco proper have been above the million dollar mark over the past year.
As always, keep in mind that First Republic’s San Francisco Index includes “a cross-section of luxury homes in Alamo, Atherton, Belvedere, Danville, Healdsburg, Hillsborough, Lafayette, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Mill Valley, Moraga, Orinda, Palo Alto, Piedmont, Portola Valley, Ross, St. Helena, San Francisco, Saratoga, Sonoma, Tiburon and Woodside.”
Their list is forgetting Burlingame and San Mateo Park!
There are many affluent areas left off of their list though at least what they chose is widely dispersed through the Bay Area and should serve as a good sample.