Park Slope in Brooklyn, N.Y., is the hottest luxury neighborhood in the U.S. this year, according to a new Redfin analysis released Tuesday. Highland Park, Ill., and Overland Park, Kan., round out the top three, while demand tied to San Francisco Bay Area AI companies pushed Noe Valley into the No. 7 spot.
Redfin ranked U.S. zip codes across the 100 most populous metro areas β limited to those with median home sale prices in the 65th percentile or above for their parent metro β by year-over-year growth in listing views on Redfin.com and by Redfin Compete Score, a measure of how difficult it is to win a home.
Luxury buyers are bucking a buyer’s market
“Unfazed by high mortgage rates and an uncertain global economy, luxury homebuyers are having an outsized impact on the otherwise tepid spring 2026 housing market,” said Asad Khan, Redfin senior economist. “The high-end neighborhoods on this list are hot because there’s not enough supply to meet the high demand, bucking the buyer’s market trend much of the country is experiencing this year.”
In Park Slope, the median sale price hit $1.77 million, up 10.6% year-over-year, more than double the broader New York City metro’s $795,000 median. Homes there spent a median of 44 days on market, and median views per listing rose 34.4% even as home sales fell 17.9%. Jason Warner, a Redfin principal agent, said the neighborhood’s brownstones and proximity to Prospect Park have made it an increasingly preferred alternative to Manhattan’s Upper West Side and Upper East Side. “Especially since the pandemic, homebuyers with young families have shown much more interest in Brooklyn than Manhattan,” Warner said. “Many professionals who still have flexibility with remote work are trying to avoid Manhattan completely.”
In Highland Park, about 25 miles north of downtown Chicago, the median sale price reached $762,500, more than double Lake County’s $354,000 median, with 42.6% of homes selling above list price. Overland Park, a Kansas City suburb, posted a $840,000 median price β up 8.5% year-over-year β with listing views up nearly 159%. Redfin Premier agent Jo Chavez attributed the demand there to highly rated schools and relatively new housing stock built within the last 25 years. “Getting into a home in this neighborhood is hard because they go pretty quickly,” Chavez said.
AI wealth reshapes a San Francisco neighborhood
Noe Valley’s median sale price climbed 18.3% year-over-year to $2.25 million, with homes spending a median of just 14 days on market and 73.1% of sales closing above list price. “A lot of people want Noe Valley and Noe Valley only,” said Cleveland Motley, a Redfin principal agent, adding that much of the demand comes from “tech money and first-time home buyers looking in the $2 to $4.5 million range.” Fellow Redfin principal agent Ali Mafi tied the surge directly to the region’s artificial-intelligence boom: “Young tech workers are lured to our local AI companies by multi-million dollar compensation packages. That’s bringing a lot of new wealth to the Noe Valley. As a result, home prices are rising very quickly this year.”
What it means
The verified facts are Redfin’s own ranking methodology and the sale-price, days-on-market and views data it reports for each zip code. The agents’ explanations for why buyers are choosing these specific neighborhoods β schools, remote-work flexibility, AI compensation β are attributed local color from Redfin’s own agents, not independently verified drivers of the price trends. What to watch: whether AI-industry compensation continues to concentrate luxury demand in specific Bay Area zip codes the way it has in Noe Valley, and whether the broader “buyer’s market” conditions Khan described elsewhere in the country eventually spread to these high-end pockets. For related coverage, see RealtyWire’s reporting on Miami overtaking New York and the Bay Area as the top ultra-luxury market and Redfin’s finding that vacation-home mortgages rose for the first time in four years.
