In 2012 it was the “Facebook effect” this year it is the “Uber effect.” It may be a horse of another color but it’s still a horse that has the potential of trouncing all over the Bay Area housing market.

Colloquially known as the “Uber effect,” tech companies Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, Pintrest and Slack are all expected to go public in this year making millionaires out of stock holding employees overnight.

Back in 2012 when Facebook went public, the IPO combined with favorable market conditions temporarily spiked Bay Area median home prices year-over-year by 37 percent.

According to Compass real estate chief economist Selma Hepp, the “Facebook effect” led to “a 21 percent increase in home values in census tracks where employees were most likely to live compared to 17 percent increase in all other Bay Area census tracks.”

Higher priced property sales were also affected. In January of 2013, after Facebook employee shares were released, home sales of properties over $2 million surged by 87 percent.

Things settled down a bit after the initial Facebook public offering. Higher priced home sales declined and median home prices relaxed.

Economists are hesitant to predict the same trend in 2019. Hepp, points out that the Bay Area housing market is significantly different than it was back in 2012. Median home prices are 2.2 percent higher than they were in 2012 and buyers have showed restraint in purchasing new homes leading to a jump in reductions in recent months.

Will these changes affect housing prices in Sonoma County? Only time will tell.

Are you an SF techie with money to burn? Click through our gallery above for a peek at most expensive homes, farms and ranches currently on the market in Sonoma County.