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Add The California Post on Google San Francisco soared to the top spot for year-over-year home price growth among major US metros in June, as a wave of AI-driven luxury buyers propelled the city’s median sale price to a record-breaking $1.72 million.
The latest Redfin report found San Francisco’s median sale price climbed 9.2% from a year earlier, narrowly ahead of Pittsburgh, where prices rose 9.1%, and West Palm Beach, Fla., which saw an 8.6% increase.
The Bay Area city matched West Palm Beach for the nation’s largest leap in closed home sales, with transactions surging roughly 23% compared to last year.
Pending home sales in San Francisco shot up 16.4% year-over-year, marking the biggest jump in the report and reaching the city’s second-highest level in four years.
Affluent Bay Area buyers have been a major force behind the city’s strong housing market, with the region’s artificial intelligence boom fueling a surge in luxury home purchases, according to the real estate site.
The company said many tech workers are using high salaries and bonuses to buy expensive homes, helping push prices even higher.
That demand has intensified competition for prime real estate, with some buyers paying as much as $1 million above asking price.
In one recent example, a San Francisco home listing attracted attention after stating it would consider stock in OpenAI or Anthropic as payment.
San Francisco’s standout performance coincided with the US housing market hitting yet another milestone in June.
Nationwide, the median home-sale price rose 2.2% from a year earlier to an all-time high of $408,776 as homebuying demand strengthened.
Existing-home sales increased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of about 4.4 million — the highest level since late 2022 — while total home sales were up 4.5% from a year earlier and reached their second-highest level since October 2022.
Meanwhile, new listings dipped 1% from May, falling to their lowest point since December and squeezing inventory in many markets.
Redfin said wealthy buyers in the Bay Area and South Florida helped drive both home prices and sales higher, but in San Francisco, the AI boom has emerged as a key force behind the city’s rapid rise.