Homes in Sonoma County are going quicker than ever, and the county has risen even higher among the fastest growing luxury markets in the country. The recently published results of Realtor.com’s 2018 Luxury Home Index show a nearly 10% increase over the previous year. Of those indexed by realtor.com, real estate Sonoma now stands as the 17th fastest growing in the country.

The ranking sets the luxury tier dynamically, using the top 5% of home sales in the market as the threshold. For Sonoma that tier starts at $1,416,541.

Home sales in the county have been trending upward on the index for some time, but experienced even more rapid growth as competition for homes increased due to a number of factors. The upswing is generally inline with the region, with Northern California dominating the top 20 on the list.

"In spite of a slow down in price growth at the mid-market in the Bay Area, our luxury index indicates that the top 5% of homes have seen prices grow and even accelerate in some areas," said Danielle Hale, chief economist for Realtor.com. Sonoma Country was one of the six markets from Northern California at or near double digit growth in year-over-year growth, and one of seven from the region on the top 20. In almost all of those markets the luxury tier started at more than $1 million (just Sacramento was below that mark).

As Ms. Hale said of the Bay Area, Sonoma County remains an attractive place to buy real estate. In all senses of the word.