Although the ranking places the ER ahead of no less than three neighborhoods in the San Francisco Bay Area—Livermore, Willow Glen and The Mission—Eagle Rockers may be surprised to learn which neighborhood tops the Redfin list.

The top honor goes to Highland Park. No, not the Highland Park in Illinois or New York City but the one that literally bleeds into Eagle rock next door.

“The hottest neighborhoods aren’t the well-known bastions of privilege,” Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman was quoted as saying in a blog posted Monday on the brokerage firm’s website. “They’re once-gritty urban areas and far-flung suburbs with school districts on the rise.”

Among other surprises in the Hottest Neighborhoods ranking is Glassell Park, which is ranked seventh.

The apparent preference for grit over glitz in housing choices is good news for the economy, according to Kelman: “This is the surest sign that the recovery is broadening, and that home-buyers are venturing out to once-marginal areas hit hard when the bubble burst.”

Redfin’s ranking is based on feedback from more than 600 of the firm’s real estate agents, who collaborated with an analytics team that factored in data from more than 130,000 listings across 16 real estate markets and the activities of 10,000 recent homebuyers, according to the website.

The analysis took into account trends in each of the 16 markets at the end of 2012. The trends covered four categories: on-market listings, sales volume, median price per square foot, and sale-to-list ratio.

Eagle Rock’s year-over-year figures reflected a 54-percent plunge in listings, a 44-percent jump in sales and an 11-percent increase in prices. 

New restaurants, a hip vibe, good schools and convenient commutes are among the factors likely to favor a neighborhood’s real estate fortunes, according to Redfin.

After Highland Park, the next two neighborhoods in the ranking are Mira Mesa in San Diego and Faircrest Heights in West L.A. (The latter is located roughly between Fairfax Avenue and La Cienega Boulevard, with Pico Boulevard and Venice Boulevard to the north and south respectively.)

“Eagle Rock has been a sought after neighborhood for quite some time now, with Colorado and Eagle Rock Boulevards offering hip restaurants and shops,” the rankings report quoted Redfin agent Earnest Watts as saying. “Few homes for sale and bidding wars are the standard.”

Article source: http://eaglerock.patch.com/articles/eagle-rock-fourth-hottest-real-estate-neighborhood-in-america

Even with inventory (listings) down compared with the same period last year, buyer demand drove an increase in the number of homes sold in Q1 in all our regions. If this trend continues, the total number of homes sold this year could reach 20,850 – and exceed the 10-year average in the Bay Area for the first time since 2005.

While the number of homes changing hands is jumping, price levels overall, on average, are down 1%.  The first quarter report from Better Homes and Gardens Mason-McDuffie Real Estate shows San Francisco and Napa’s median price increasing by 4% and 7%, while Alameda’s median dropped by 10% compared to the first quarter of 2011.  Slim pickings are sparking multiple offers with quality homes in favored locations as inventory is down by more than half compared to last year.

As of the final day of the first quarter, 7,703 existing detached homes were listed for sale across the entire Bay Area, down a staggering 54 percent from 16,669 homes on the market on the same date a year ago.

Even with the lack of homes on the market, it looks like buyers are out of the gates.  In my local Marin neighborhood, newly listed homes that had a hard time selling a year or two ago, where they lingered for over 100+ days and were finally pulled, are getting snatched up within 2-3 weeks.  With the traditional buying season just beginning and the Facebook IPO on its way, this sets the stage for an interesting summer.

Courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens Mason-McDuffie Real Estate

Article source: http://blog.sfgate.com/ontheblock/2012/05/04/bay-area-home-sales-off-to-best-start-since-2005/