5 Best Real Estate Markets for Hipsters

Third-hippest U.S. city: San Francisco
Median list price: $679,000

Like the song says: "If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair" -- because the city's been hip since at least 1967 (when If You're Going to San Francisco topped the charts).

Hippies made the city's Haight-Ashbury district hip in those days, while San Francisco's Mission District and South of Market area are hot today.

Travel+Leisure readers ranked the City by the Bay No. 5 for offbeat people, giving it a 4.43 out of a possible 5. The 4.3-million-person metro area also came in sixth for coffee bars, scoring 4.47. But it's San Francisco's tech-savvy denizens that put it near the top of the hip list. Located less than an hour from Silicon Valley, the home of Craigslist, Twitter and other tech firms ranked No. 2 for tech-savvy residents, scoring a 4.59.

"All of the tech explosion happening in and around San Francisco makes it highly rated for tech-savvy people," Beattie says.

Unfortunately, San Francisco is the most expensive of America's hippest cities, with median asking prices up 5.3% over the past year to $679,000.

Realtor.com has some 1,200 Bay Area properties listed, from a $49,000 one-bedroom condo to a $25 million mansion in tony Pacific Heights.

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