Homes with Close Proximity to Electric Vehicle Charging Stations List for 1.5 Times More

Realtor.com® analysis finds that you'll pay a premium to live in a metro that accommodates electric vehicles

SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 22, 2019 -- A new analysis by realtor.com, the Home of Home Search, released today found that home prices in the nation's top 20 neighborhoods that are most accommodating to electric vehicles are listed 1.5 times higher than their surrounding metro area on average, and 2.6 times higher than the rest of the country. Nine of the top 20 ZIP codes are in California.

In honor of Earth Day, realtor.comⓇ used data from OpenChargeMap to track 19,743 charging stations mapped across 6,980 ZIP codes, and then analyzed the housing markets of the top 20 areas with the most electric vehicle charging stations.

According to the analysis, the combined median listing price for the top 20 ZIP codes is $782,000, 1.5 times higher than their surrounding metro area on average, and 2.6 times higher than the rest of the country. Half of homes in these ZIP codes sell in 75 days, 15 days slower than their surrounding metro area on average, and 10 days slower than the rest of the country, consistent with sales trends in pricer areas.

"Our data shows there's definitely a link between the prevalence of electric vehicle charging stations and higher home prices," says Danielle Hale, chief economist, realtor.com®. "But there's a difference between correlation and causation. The trend we're seeing in the data is most likely a result of the fact that wealthier homeowners are more likely to purchase expensive electric vehicles. But regardless of the cause, if you're shopping for a home in a ZIP with an abundance of electric vehicle charging stations, you'll likely pay a premium."

The top 20 markets represented in the data all fall within nine states, with a large majority of the ZIP codes in California. ZIP code 92618 in Irvine, Calif. has the most charging stations, while the top 20 ZIP codes have an average of 30.1 charging stations each.

It stands to reason that California leads the nation in charging stations, given electric car sales make up 10 percent of all new cars sold in the state, outpacing all other states in the nation. Beyond Tesla's manufacturing presence in California, there are several contributing factors that have led to increased awareness of EVs in the state, including the state's Zero-Emission Vehicle Program, California's EV rebate, coastal political leanings (ie pro-cleantech, pro-innovation), higher than average wages. Research has shown a connection between the fact that California highways allow EVs to drive in HOV lanes and EV adoption, but this benefit to EV owners is not exclusive to California.

Outside of California, the most EV-friendly housing markets can be found in Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Nevada, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, and Texas. Although significantly more affordable than the majority of the EV-accommodating ZIPS, the analysis found that homes in close proximity to EV charging stations still sell at a premium, with non-California ZIPS seeing median listing prices that are still 1.5 times higher than their surrounding metro median, and 2.0 times higher than the U.S. median listing price, on average.

Top 20 ZIP Codes For Electric Vehicles

Rank based on Number of EV Charging Stations Per ZIP Code

Methodology:

Zip codes were ranked by number of EV charging stations located within the zip code. Housing trends such as median listing price come from the realtor.com® residential listings database for listings actively for sale during March 2019. Each zip code reported here represents the top ranked zip code in its respective metropolitan area. Reported averages for the top 20 were weighted by each market's number of active listings during March 2019. EV charging station data from OpenChargeMap was accessed on April 1, 2019 which at the time contained records for nearly 20,000 (19,743) charging stations mapped across the United States in 6,980 ZIP codes.

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