Want a home in White Oaks? Move fast!

San Carlos area tops list of nation’s most competitive neighborhoods for buyers

Anyone who wants to buy a home in San Carlos’ White Oaks area better be prepared to pay top dollar and move fast.

According to a new report from Redfin, the neighborhood with quiet, leafy streets a short walk from restaurants and shops was the nation’s most competitive area in 2019 for homebuyers.

More than 72% of homes in White Oaks sold above asking price this year, and most were on the market for less than two weeks, Redfin found. The average price: $1,835,000.

White Oaks took the top spot in Redfin’s ranking of the 20 most competitive neighborhoods, but it has a lot of local company. Ten of the top neighborhoods are in the Bay Area and close to half of those are in Oakland.

Alger Heights in Grand Rapids, Michigan, snagged the second spot after White Oaks, followed by East Arlington in Arlington, Massachusetts, in third.

The Glenview neighborhood of Oakland is the second most competitive Bay Area market and the fourth overall, according to Redfin, with more than 84% of homes selling for above asking price. Also popular in Oakland: Upper Rockridge, Bushrod and Piedmont Avenue.

“I’ve heard a lot of people say the Bay Area housing market is cooling this year, but I’m seeing the opposite in Oakland,” Oakland Redfin agent Katy Polvorosa said in a statement.

One reason the city is so popular is that, even with homes regularly selling for more than $1 million in certain areas, it’s still relatively affordable compared with San Francisco and Santa

Clara County.

Homes in the Piedmont Avenue neighborhood, according to Redfin, are selling for around $750,000 on average. In San Francisco’s Mission Dolores neighborhood, which ranks 10th among the most competitive areas in the country, they go for more than twice that — $1,660,000.

Several other Bay Area locations also make the list: the Berkeley Hills area of Berkeley, Bay Farm Island in Alameda, Beresford Park in San Mateo and North Los

Altos in Los Altos, where the average home sells for an eye-popping $3,173,000.

While competition may seem like the norm for would-be Bay Area buyers, it’s actually pretty rare.

According to Redfin, just 12% of offers written by the company’s agents for clients nationwide faced a bidding war, down from 53% in 2017.

Redfin examined data on sale-to-list price ratio, median days on the market and other factors, and

based its analysis on an average of monthly statistics from January through November.

While neighborhoods near Boston also are well represented on the list, areas like Alger Heights and Creston, both in Grand Rapids, and Hartkopf near Minneapolis also made the top 20.

According to Redfin, robust competition in such areas signals that homebuyers are seeking out more affordable places, specifically inland cities away from the expensive coasts.

In the third quarter of 2019, the company said, 26% of people searching for homes on Redfin’s website were looking to move to a different metro area, with Sacramento, Las Vegas, and Phoenix, Arizona, being popular destinations.

“Affordability plus quality

of life are big draws to the Grand Rapids area,” Redfin agent Shellie Silva, who moved from San Diego to Grand Rapids several years ago, said in a statement.

“I’ve worked with buyers from Chicago, California, Hawaii and other expensive parts of the country who are looking here because they can get so much more bang for their buck.”