The Headline on the front page of the Sunday Chron on Nov 9 was an attention grabber. I checked to see how my zip code fared, since it is one of three that are shared by both Oakland and Piedmont and some Real Estate data sources combine both cities.   The article suggests the Median Price per square foot is a more useful metric because Median Price “….. can be skewed by the number of homes that change hands at the high or low ends of the market.”   Which also means an area where most of the homes sold are in a similar price range (Rockridge) there will be less change in the Median Price per square foot than an area with a huge spread between the low and high end. (Piedmont)  The data used in the Chronicle article was provided by Data Quick.  The chart below is data found on Multiple Listing Service with the percentage change in Median Price and Median Price/square foot Piedmont, Rockridge, Montclair & Crocker/Lakeshore.

When I used the tool on SF Gate to view “Home Prices Per Square Foot”  the numbers were off quite a  bit from MLS.  It appears Data Quick lumped together the 94611, 94618 and 94610 zip codes in Piedmont & Oakland.  However, MLS data trends were similar to Data quick.