10 Most Expensive Cities to Live in the Bay Area

Entire Bay Area is becoming an economic powerhouse within the United States, and as you’re about to see from this list of 10 most expensive cities to live in the Bay Area – it’s also becoming an incubator for high-priced property and expensive shopping baskets in general. Whether it’s North, East, South Bay, Peninsula or San Francisco itself, Bay Area is generally more expensive than the United States are on average. With prices above national average, however, come corresponding salaries. Some neighborhoods in Bay Area, however, are so expensive (thanks to real estate mostly), that very few people can afford to live there. People that do live there are either natives that have been there before Bay Area’s rise to economic prominence, celebrities, prolific academics or successful businessmen.

Unlike the Bay Area – Arizona, for instance, isn’t that expensive. If you compare 10 most expensive cities to live in Arizona with those that will appear further down on this list, you’ll likely figure out that in most cases you’ll need a salary bump of around 30% in order to maintain your standard of living if you’re moving from the Grand Canyon State to the Bay Area. This speaks a lot about Bay Area’s expensiveness, but offer/demand tends to do that sometimes. Luckily for most Bay Area’s inhabitants – they usually receive better salaries than most people across the country.

In order to compile the list, we have used multiple sources. If you take a look at Career Trends’ cost of living landing page, you’ll easily notice that San Francisco takes the seventh spot in the entire country by overall expensiveness. San Jose – Sunnyvale – Santa Clara metro area is on the thirteenth spot, Oakland – Fremont takes the seventeenth spot, and so on. You can view the entire list of select ranked California cities and metro areas here, and you’ll easily figure out that Bay Area cities are among the most expensive ones in the entire Golden State. While everyone has, by now, figured out that San Francisco is the most expensive city to live in Bay Area overall – we have decided to break the area into cities, towns and neighborhoods. We have rated exactly 101 of Bay Area’s municipalities, and came to a conclusion that smaller areas (mostly between San Francisco and San Jose) are the most expensive ones to live in. This doesn’t really come as a surprise since renting, and especially buying a home there requires extremely high budgets. Housing index has biased our list of 10 most expensive cities to live in the Bay Area to some extent, but something had to do that since overall prices are largely similar between the Silicon Valley municipalities. Of course, we could have discarded the housing index, but that too wouldn’t give us the accurate results. Largest chunks of family budgets are usually spent on that category, and even though housing index really skews the tables – it still has to be taken into account. Once again: San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland are basically the largest and most expensive cities in the Bay Area, but some prominent neighborhoods and smaller towns really take the biscuit thanks to their exorbitant real estate prices. You can check all of them either on Sperling’s Best Places or Area vibes’ websites.

10. Saratoga

As mentioned above, plenty of cities on this list will be those from around San Jose or between San Jose and San Francisco. Saratoga on the western edge of Santa Clara Valley is directly west from San Jose. It has been ranked on numerous lists before our own – including towns with highest-earning population, towns with most educated population and, of course, numerous other costs of living-related lists. It goes without saying that high cost of living in Saratoga is mostly due to expensive real estate. That much has already been established in introduction, and this goes for all cities, towns and neighborhoods from this list. Apart from higher housing index, Saratoga features higher figures in every single category apart from utilities – at least when compared to California’s average. Compared to national average, however, even utility bills here are higher.

9. Los Altos

A few miles north of Saratoga – Los Altos features very similar prices in all categories. While most of the indexes are even, housing index is slightly higher here which propels Los Altos one spot higher than Saratoga. Average home here costs around $2 million which isn’t a price most people can afford. Needless to say, renting is more expensive than in most of the US. However, Los Altos inhabitants get their share of perks too as they enjoy the year-round mild climate, educated neighbors and plenty of amenities given San Jose’s vicinity.

8. Ross

Ross will be the northernmost community on this list of 10 most expensive cities to live in the Bay Area. It’s across the Golden Gate from San Francisco and has the population of less than 3,000. However, it belongs to San Francisco’s metro area, and as such gravitates toward the city. Utility bills in Ross are slightly lower than those in Silicon Valley, but other goods and rents are making up for that.

7. Monte Sereno

Another small community of slightly more than 3,000 people – Monte Sereno returns us to the Silicon Valley. With that in mind, most prices in Monte Sereno can directly be compared with those in Saratoga and Los Altos. In fact, Monte Sereno basically borders Saratoga which means that almost all prices are the same between the two communities. All besides the rents which are slightly higher in Monte Sereno. Being in the foothills of Santa Cruz Mountains, it’s no wonder why real estate prices here are higher than those in surrounding towns.

6. Woodside

Another small, picturesque community – Woodside is further up north along the San Francisco peninsula. Surrounded by similar highly expensive communities and lots of green areas like Wunderlich County Park, El Corte Madera Creek Preserve, and Phleger Estate – Woodside (as its name suggests), is easily one of most desirable homes one can imagine. Of course, high prices are preventing just anyone from moving there – especially if one’s hunting for a home to buy as median home price is just shy of $3 million. Since Woodside is slightly further away from Silicon Valley’s core, however, utility bills aren’t as high.

5. Belvedere

Belvedere is the smallest community on our list of 10 most expensive cities to live in the Bay Area, but it’s one of the most picturesque ones at the same time. Located at the tip of Tiburon Peninsula, Belvedere is overlooking both the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco downtown in the distance. Such a prolific view comes with a hefty price tag as Belvedere exhibits very high real estate prices and higher shopping basket prices than most of the towns in both the state and the country.

4. Portola Valley

Portola Valley is a little bit south from Woodside which means that most of the prices are basically the same. Portola Valley even gets its own woodland reserves in the face of La Honda Creek Open Space Reserve, Coal Creek Open Space Reserve and Windy Hill Open Space Preserve. The only difference between Portola Valley and previously mentioned surrounding communities is even higher housing index.

3. Los Altos Hills

Los Altos Hills are, as their name suggests, located just above Los Altos. On a bigger scale, Los Altos Hills are sandwiched between the towns of Los Altos and Portola Valley. Apart from having to pay even more for their houses, Los Altos Hills residents have to put aside even more money for utilities and transportation than most of their neighbors. However, they do get to enjoy life in one of the most prosperous towns in the country. Furthermore, Los Altos Hills are strictly residential for more than 40 years now which means that there are no commercial stores in the town. All inhabitants’ needs can be satisfied in bordering Los Altos, however.

2. Hillsborough

Apart from being just around Crystal Springs Reservoirs and San Andreas Lake, Hillsborough’s main advantage is the vicinity of San Francisco International Airport. Another advantage is San Mateo bridge which spans the bay and connects Hillsborough with the other side (read Hayward). In fact, all this makes Hillsborough one of Bay Area’s towns with the best infrastructure and connectivity overall. All this comes with a price, though, as average home in this 11,000 inhabitants town costs almost $3.5 million.

1. Atherton

Atherton is one of wealthiest towns in America, and it’s the most expensive zip code according to Forbes. Most of the prices in Atherton can be compared with those in surrounding cities, towns and neighborhoods. Even real estate is similarly priced, but it’s still more expensive by slight amount. This is enough to reserve Atherton number 1 spot overall on our list of 10 most expensive cities to live in the Bay Area. Homes in Atherton cost more than $3.5 million on average, and most of them offer plenty of space to their lucky owners. This is one of the main differences between Atherton and other towns along the California State Route 82. Close vicinity of Stanford College is another advantage, and so is proximity to Dumbarton bridge which connects Atherton with Fremont – Newark on the other side of the bay.