Homeowners in Los Angeles who held onto their homes for a long time, but finally sold last year saw large returns on their investments. In fact, the average home seller in Los Angeles made roughly $200,000 per sale in 2016.
However, not everyone saw a return this large. According to a study released this month by Zillow, owners who saw the highest returns on their investments owned the property for a median span of nine years and eight months.
That makes for a gain of 53.7%, which was better than 28 of the other 33 metropolitan areas included in the study. The best part is – the gains were made during a time in which the entire nation was seeing rising home prices. Experts say the West Coast did considerably better thanks to their higher paying jobs (most of which are in the tech industry) and patience to hold onto their properties longer.
Zillow found that Oakland was the area with the best return on investment. In this area, most homeowners lived in their homes for about 7 years and 3 months, and the average home sale price was $590,000 last year. For these homeowners, that is an increase of 78% of what they paid for the homes.
Here is a look at the top 10 areas Nationally:
- Oakland, California – 78% Return
- Portland, Oregon – 64.7% Return
- San Jose, California – 56.5% Return
- Denver, Colorado – 56% Return
- Los Angeles, California – 53.7% Return
- Sacramento, California – 53.6% Return
- Seattle, Washington – 53.1% Return
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – 51.7% Return
- New Orleans, Louisiana – 51.5% Return
- Boston, Massachusetts – 49.6% Return