Look, I've been watching the luxury market pretty closely, and Realtor.com Research just put out their September numbers, and there's some interesting stuff happening. The entry point to what we call luxury property hasn't moved much from the month before, staying right around 1.2 million. What caught my attention though is that this threshold is actually the lowest we've seen since early 2023, and it's quite a bit lower than where it peaked back in mid-2023. Compared to this same time two years ago, we're down about 5.7 percent. The higher end of the market, those really expensive properties, softened just a touch more than the entry-level luxury segment.
When you look at the share of million-dollar listings out there, it came in just under twelve and a half percent. That's down slightly from August and down about half a point from a year ago. Now here's what's interesting: while million-dollar listings are up about one percent compared to last year, the total amount of inventory out there has grown by more than five percent. That tells me the broader market is growing faster than the high end, which helps explain why the luxury share is shrinking even though there are technically more million-dollar homes available.
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont actually bounced back into the top ten most expensive metros in the country this month, coming in at around 2.5 million. The area gained four percent from August, which pushed out Atlantic City from that top ten list. This is the third straight month we've seen gains here, though I should note that on an annual basis our region is still down about ten percent. The good news is we're one of five California markets in the top ten, which shows where people still want to be.
Now here's something that really grabbed me about this report. Realtor.com looked at how luxury homes line up with elementary school quality, because they found that school ratings matter a lot to high-end buyers. When they ranked all these major luxury markets by the average rating of public elementary schools near luxury homes, some interesting patterns showed up. Naples-Marco Island came out on top with an average rating of 9.3, and notably, both Naples and Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin were the only top ten markets that actually gained value over the year. Meanwhile, California's four luxury metros all ranked in the middle to lower part of that school quality list, with San Jose at 8.4, Los Angeles at 8.1, San Diego at 7.9, and our San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont area at 7.5.
One other thing worth noting is that strong schools don't guarantee market strength. Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury in Connecticut has the third-best elementary school ratings among luxury homes at 8.5, yet it's had the steepest annual decline in the expensive markets, down fifteen and a half percent from last year. That shows us that while schools absolutely matter to buyers, they're only one piece of what drives luxury real estate prices.
What I am seeing locally here in the Bay Area is that while we're gaining some traction month to month and we're back in that national conversation about where luxury buyers want to be, we still have some ground to make up compared to a year ago. The school quality factor is interesting because it reminds me that buyers at every level are thinking about their children's education and the long-term value of their neighborhoods. For East Bay sellers especially, highlighting those strong school districts could be part of a smarter strategy to compete with some of these other markets that are doing better on the scoreboard right now.
