realtor.com
When mortgage rates surged in 2023, homebuyers across the country responded by putting more cash down and borrowing less—but in the Bay Area, something else was happening. Tech workers were converting AI equity into cash at an extraordinary scale, pushing luxury down payment shares to 38.3% in 2023 and keeping them elevated through 2024 and 2025, even as comparable markets like Miami, Austin, and New York City fully retreated. The data points to a new dynamic in Bay Area luxury housing—one where the barrier to entry is no longer just price, but access to the kind of sudden, concentrated wealth that only the AI boom can generate.
5 months ago
