San Francisco Bay Area leads in EV-friendly home listings

Data: Realtor.com, Cox Automotive; Note: Among 100 biggest metro areas; Chart: Axios Visuals

As San Francisco works toward becoming a zero-emissions city by 2040, home electric vehicle chargers are becoming hot commodities.

Why it matters: Homes with electric vehicle chargers could hold greater resale value as more car buyers make the switch, Realtor.com chief economist Danielle Hale says.

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• Meanwhile, two years ago, California's Air Resources Board set a mandate that by 2035, 100% of new cars and light trucks sold in California must be zero-emission vehicles.
• Fossil fuels from the transportation sector are some of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in the city, San Francisco's environment department director Tyrone Jue previously told Axios .

Driving the news: Among metro areas with the highest share of EV-friendly home listings last year, San Jose topped the list, at 4.9%, followed by San Francisco, with 3.8%, according to Realtor.com and Cox Automotive's report .

• Nationwide, 0.9% of U.S. homes listed on Realtor.com in 2023 were described as EV-friendly , up from 0.1% five years earlier.

The big picture: Home chargers, which are often more convenient than public ones, and faster than charging cables that come with most EVs, are more common in areas with high EV ownership rates .

• In San Francisco, EV vehicles made up 37% of all new vehicle sales last year, the San Francisco Examiner reports , citing data from the city's environment department.

Zoom in: The typical installation in San Francisco costs between $524 and $1,197, according to HomeAdvisor, but there are some incentives to help homeowners.

• PG&E's Empower EV program offers eligible households a $500 charger and up to $2,000 in incentives to help cover the cost of electrical panel upgrades, if needed.
• The utility provider also offers $700 rebates to eligible households.

Yes, but: Home-charging stations, while desirable to some, are not a guaranteed way to increase a home's value, Realtor.com economist Jiayi Xu said .

• Home chargers should, however, "help [sellers] to reach more buyers," she said.

What to watch: The city wants at least 25% of all vehicle registrations to be electric by 2030 but officials have said they recognize that access to charging infrastructure can be a barrier to EV adoption.

• In March, city supervisor Rafael Mandelman and officials from the city's environment department announced plans to pursue a curbside EV charging project to increase access to EV charging and spur greater EV adoption.

Note: Cox Automotive's parent company, Cox Enterprises, also owns Axios.

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