San Jose, California, is the most costly U.S. metro area to buy a home for the second year running.
With a median house worth exceeding $1.6 million as of Could 2025, the Silicon Valley metropolis continues to guide the U.S. in excessive actual property prices, in keeping with a recent report from SmartAsset, a monetary know-how firm. The report analyzed Zillow knowledge on single-family houses, condos and co-ops in 100 of the nation’s largest metro areas in 2020, 2024 and 2025.
California is house to the 5 most costly markets by median sale worth in 2025, SmartAsset discovered.
“California has this actually lovely intersection of a very extremely productive financial system, and likewise simply pure magnificence that allows a very comfy way of life for lots of people,” says Jaclyn DeJohn, director of financial evaluation at SmartAsset. That “comfy way of life” is a big pull for patrons, she provides.
With high-paying tech jobs and proximity to the seashore, San Jose is a chief, and more and more dear, magnet, DeJohn says. The town’s median house value has elevated by 1.63% since Could 2024, SmartAsset discovered.
Listed here are the median house sale costs within the 10 most costly housing markets for 2025, in keeping with SmartAsset.
1. San Jose, California
- Median house worth, 2025: $1,626,041
- Improve since 2024: 1.63%
- Improve since 2020: 38.09%
2. San Francisco
- Median house worth, 2025: $1,181,211
- Improve since 2024: -2.38%
- Improve since 2020: 32.72%
3. Los Angeles
- Median house worth, 2025: $975,475
- Improve since 2024: 0.56%
- Improve since 2020: 51.24%
4. San Diego
- Median house worth, 2025: $894,777
- Improve since 2024: -0.58%
- Improve since 2020: 54.67%
5. Oxnard, California
- Median house worth, 2025: $880,544
- Improve since 2024: 4.83%
- Improve since 2020: 44.95%
6. Seattle
- Median house worth, 2025: $727,919
- Improve since 2024: -2.29%
- Improve since 2020: 47.65%
7. Honolulu
- Median house worth, 2025: $724,470
- Improve since 2024: 18.68%
- Improve since 2020: 21.27%
8. Boston
- Median house worth, 2025: $723,079
- Improve since 2024: 5.56%
- Improve since 2020: 52.15%
9. Bridgeport, Connecticut
- Median house worth, 2025: $662,866
- Improve since 2024: 12.35%
- Improve since 2020: 54.15%
10. New York
- Median house worth, 2025: $651,474
- Improve since 2024: 5.08%
- Improve since 2020: 53.29%
Too many patrons, not sufficient houses
Many components are driving house costs larger throughout the U.S., however within the nation’s most costly markets, it principally comes right down to sturdy demand and restricted provide, DeJohn says, particularly in cities with strong job markets and interesting way of life perks.
With so many hopeful patrons competing for houses, homebuilders are struggling to maintain tempo, DeJohn says. Zoning restrictions, geographic limitations and development delays are all making it tougher to construct adequate housing stock, she says.
Take Honolulu, the seventh-most costly housing market within the U.S., for instance. As a result of it’s situated on an island, restricted land availability hinders house growth. However being surrounded by seashores and ocean can be a way of life perk that appeals to patrons.
That mixture of shortage and desirability stiffens competitors and drives up costs, DeJohn says. As of Could 2025, the median house sale worth in Honolulu is $724,470, in keeping with SmartAsset — 18.68% larger than the median sale worth in 2024.
These rising costs aren’t only a market pattern — they’re reshaping who can really afford to purchase a house proper now, DeJohn says.
Particularly amid financial challenges like tight job markets and rising costs of living, affordability is becoming a bigger hurdle for a lot of would-be patrons, she says, pushing many to stay to renting for longer than they’d like.
“If these housing markets proceed to get costlier at charges that outpace wage earners or folks’s incomes and saving charges … that may eat up extra of your earnings and make it tougher to save lots of,” DeJohn says. “All whereas the down cost essential to qualify to buy a house will increase.”
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