San Francisco’s luxury real-estate market went from ghost town to gold rush.
After a period of post-pandemic urban decline, the city is now experiencing a renaissance at the highest echelons of the housing market, largely credited to the explosive success of artificial intelligence.
Sotheby’s International Realty 2025 Mid-Year Luxury Outlook report found that more homes sold above $20 million in San Francisco than in any other year on record. This resurgence, experts say, is being driven by the meteoric rise of A.I. and the flood of new wealth it created among founders or engineers eager to set down roots near the industry’s hub.
“The thought is that the A.I. space is going to be the next major source of wealth creation in the global economy,” Bradley Nelson, Sotheby’s chief marketing officer, told Bloomberg. “San Francisco became a magnetic location really quickly because if an entrepreneur or a tech investor was saying, ‘OK, I want to make a bet in A.I,.’ they were deciding they needed to do it in San Francisco and in the Bay Area for access to the labor pool with that technical expertise.”
The City by the Bay is home to the headquarters of hugely influential companies like OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, as well as countless startups and research labs. Among the most talked-about real estate deals is a reported $70 million purchase by Laurene Powell Jobs on San Francisco’s fabled Billionaire’s Row.
Nelson also found that buyers at the ultra-high end aren’t just acquiring $20 million estates, but pouring millions more into multiyear, custom renovations, setting clear intentions to take up residence in the city. He told Bloomberg that “the luxury real estate market in 2025 has just stepped out as the perennial safe haven.” He credited much of San Francisco’s comeback to recently elected Mayor Daniel Lurie.
Other luxury housing markets on the rise include New York City, where properties priced at $10 million and above were up 115%, according to Sotheby’s International Realty. The report also noted an emerging luxury market in Deer Valley, Utah, where a state record of 15 sales above $15 million have been made.