The real estate rebound in the Bay Area has brought the median price for a luxury home up to $2.67 million. That’s up 6.6 percent from last year — the biggest jump since 2006, the San Francisco Business Times reported.
Of course, ordinary home prices are up too. But those luxury homes are oh-so-much-more fun to look at, aren’t they?
The pop in luxury homes up here is bigger than the 2.4 percent growth seen in the Los Angeles area and the 2.5 percent in the San Diego area, according to First Republic Bank’s Prestige Home Index.
So the question is … what does $2.67 million buy you nowadays?
Well, that depends where you are. In Tiburon, that ballpark gets you a view of the Golden Gate Bridge from your living room, but the dated bathrooms can only be described as an “opportunity to renovate” in the sale copy.
$2.675 million in Tiburon (Zillow)
In Napa, you can get 26 acres with three houses on it and even a few acres of vineyard.
$2.675 in Napa (Pacific Union International)
In Menlo Park, $2.67 million buys a roomy 3,075-square-foot Craftsman.
$2.675 in Menlo Park (Bonnie Biorn, Coldwell Banker)
And in Walnut Creek, you could spread out in your own “custom estate,” with a main house and guest house combining for a whopping 7,568 square feet of living space.
$2.675 in Walnut Creek (Zillow)
If you had two and a half million bucks, which would you choose? We’re tempted by the thought of a rambling Napa getaway, but that Tiburon picture window view is worth a million words. Or maybe two and a half million of them.
More views of these median-priced luxury homes:
<!– –>
Carrie Kirby is a freelance writer who recently returned to the Bay Area after living for six years in Chicago. Carrie is more heavily invested in real estate than she ever expected to be, since she and her husband are now long-distance landlords of their Chicago home, and have also purchased a house in Alameda. She posts about interesting properties and real estate trends in San Francisco and Silicon Valley every Tuesday. Carrie also shares money-saving tips on her blog, Frugalistic Mom.
Article source: http://blog.sfgate.com/ontheblock/2012/09/18/bay-area-luxury-home-median-jumps-to-2-67-million/