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Supercharged Housing Markets: The Top 10 Cities for Electric Vehicle Owners

Those looking for a home with a charging station for an electric vehicle might want to browse listings in Silicon Valley.

As Earth Day approaches and more folks are looking for ways to be more environmentally friendly, the San Jose, CA, housing market was named the most EV-friendly in the nation, according to a Realtor.com® and Cox Automotive analysis.

While only about 0.9% of homes listed on Realtor.com were rated EV-friendly, that was up from 0.1% just five years ago. And it’s poised to grow. A record of nearly 1.2 million electric vehicles were sold last year, according to Cox Automotive.

“We are definitely going to see more electric vehicle-friendly homes in coming years,” says Realtor.com economist Jiayi Xu. “There are so many government policies to support electric vehicles, including rebate programs. These are incentives for people to buy the vehicles and then there is higher demand for at-home chargers.”

More homes in pricey, high-tech cities tend to be equipped with vehicle chargers. That makes sense as buyers paid an average of $52,314 for an electric vehicle in February, according to Cox Automotive.

In San Jose, about 1 in 5 households in the metro drives one of these vehicles. It was followed by Salt Lake City and San Francisco. Thirteen of the top 20 metros were in the western swath of the country, with eight in California.

“These metros have higher shares of younger people,” says Xu. “Electric vehicles, while not new technology, are still new for many people. Some younger people are more interested in these vehicles.”

Not surprisingly, the markets where larger percentages of residents own EVs have higher rates of EV-friendly homes for sale. Having a personal charging station also tends to be more common in newer homes, built after electric vehicles became more popular, and homes with garages.

Luxury apartment complexes also tend to be more EV-friendly.

“Even in older homes, people can upgrade their electrical systems to make their homes more electric vehicle-friendly,” says Xu. She points out that having a charging station in a home won’t necessarily increase the home’s value, but “it will help you to reach more potential buyers.”

To come up with our findings, Realtor.com looked at the 100 metropolitan areas with the largest percentage of EV-friendly, single-family homes, townhomes, row homes, condos, and co-ops listed on Realtor.com in 2023. We teamed up with Cox Automotive, which also looked at the number of public charging ports for these vehicles.