In California, one percent more of real estate listings mention water conservation than do nationwide listings. However, the share of these listings has gone down from 2015, 2016 peaks.
The first half of this decade was the driest in California's history, though now that the drought has eased, and fewer home listings in the state are mentioning drought-resistance amenities. According to Zillow, only one California county did not feature at least one 2017 listing including drought resistant features: Alpine County, the state’s least populous, located in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, south of Lake Tahoe. Meanwhile, northwest of Los Angeles in Ventura county was the highest share of mentions at 2.8 percent.
The Far Northern and Inland Southern regions – Redwood forest and Mojave Desert country, respectively – were the only regions where drought-resistance was more likely to be touted in local listings last year than in prior years. The state’s Central Coast had the highest share of listings (2.4 percent) that mentioned drought-resistance – somewhat unsurprising, given its lack of water infrastructure including dams, aqueducts and reservoirs compared to the rest of the state.
