Homebuyers Felt the Heat in Boston, Seattle, Portland and San Francisco
SEATTLE — Dec. 29, 2015 — The 30 most competitive neighborhoods to buy a home in 2015 are located in just four cities, according to Redfin (www.redfin.com), the next-generation real estate brokerage. It is no coincidence that these cities–Boston, Seattle, Portland and San Francisco–are also among the nation’s prominent technology hubs.
“These four metro areas have set themselves apart in terms of attracting and creating high-wage jobs in tech, pharma, and finance and that has heated up the local housing market. When a short supply of homes collides with high-income homebuyers you get this hot, hyper-competitive climate,” Redfin chief economist Nela Richardson said.
Inman Square in Cambridge, Mass. was the most competitive neighborhood in Redfin’s ranking, followed by Overlake in the Seattle suburb of Redmond.
Below are the 10 most competitive neighborhoods for homebuyers in 2015:
|
Rank |
Neighborhood (City) |
Metro Area |
|
1 |
Inman Square (Cambridge) |
Boston |
|
2 |
Overlake (Redmond) |
Seattle |
|
3 |
Brighton/Allston |
Boston |
|
4 |
Roosevelt |
Seattle |
|
5 |
Hawthorne |
Portland |
|
6 |
Spring Hill (Somerville) |
Boston |
|
7 |
Grass Lawn (Redmond) |
Seattle |
|
8 |
Central Sunset |
San Francisco |
|
9 |
Phinney Ridge |
Seattle |
|
10 |
Cambridgeport (Cambridge) |
Boston |
To rank the most competitive neighborhoods to buy a home, Redfin analyzed multiple indicators of competition from 2015, including the percentage of homes that sold above asking price, how quickly homes went under contract and the percentage of Redfin offers that faced bidding wars. The data came from multiple listing services (MLSs), public records and proprietary data on Redfin agent and customer activity.
To read the full report and ranking, complete with neighborhood data and a detailed methodology, please visit: https://www.redfin.com/blog/2015/12/homebuyer-competition-was-crazy-in-2015-these-four-cities-had-it-especially-bad.html
About Redfin
Redfin (www.redfin.com) is a next-generation real estate brokerage that represents people buying and selling homes. Founded by technologists, Redfin employs a team of experienced, full-service real estate agents who are advocates, not salespeople, earning customer-satisfaction bonuses, not just commissions. Redfin.com features all the broker-listed homes for sale, as well as for-sale-by-owner properties that don’t pay brokers a commission. Redfin also offers online tools, built by its own software engineers, that make the entire process of buying or selling a home easier and more fun. The company serves major markets across the U.S. and has closed nearly $20 billion in home sales. In 2012, Redfin was named one of The DIGITAL 100: World’s Most Valuable Private Tech Companies by Business Insider.
