How hot is the California housing market?

Methodology

The heat score ranks an area against every other area of the same kind (ZIP codes against ZIP codes, cities against cities, states against states) on five measures from Redfin’s Data Center: the share of homes sold above list price (35%), the average sale-to-list ratio (20%), median days on market (20%, fewer is hotter), months of supply (15%, fewer is hotter) and the share of listings with a price drop (10%, fewer is hotter). Each measure is a percentile rank, and the score is their weighted average, from 0 to 100.

Figures cover a trailing three-month window, weighted by sales, and are compared with the same three months a year earlier: a single month in a small ZIP code can be a handful of sales. An area needs at least 30 sales in the last 12 months, 10 in the window, and the three core measures to be scored. Redfin doesn’t publish months of supply or price drops for ZIP codes, so ZIP scores use the measures available. City figures come from Redfin’s own city series where it publishes one, and otherwise from a sales-weighted roll-up of the city’s ZIP codes. ZIP codes are assigned to cities using the Census Bureau’s 2020 ZIP-to-place, town and county relationships, and named with the Postal Service’s city names from HUD’s crosswalk.

BindingOffers, “How hot is the California housing market? (May 2026)”, using data provided by Redfin, a national real estate brokerage. https://bindingoffers.com/market-pulse/ca