The number of US cities where first-time homebuyers are faced with at least a $1 million price tag on the average entry-level home has nearly tripled in the past five years, according to new research.
A Thursday report from Zillow indicates that a typical starter home is now worth $1 million or more in 237 cities, up from 84 cities in 2019, underscoring America’s ongoing home affordability crisis.
“Affordability has been strained across the board,” Orphe Divounguy, a senior economist at Zillow, said. “We see the largest number of million-dollar starter homes in expensive coastal markets. We see them in markets with very low homeownership rates and we see them in markets with more building regulations.”
California?
(checks notes)
More than 100 of the 200 are in California. :) Next closest is New York at 31.
Seems like a mostly California problem.
It’s not just a California problem. It’s a coastal city problem.
It’s not really shocking. The coast is valuable and limited. Living in an expensive coastal town isn’t really “starter home” material.
You wouldn’t say that if you saw what they’re selling for a million dollars. House built in the 1940’s with no maintenance except paying off the inspector not to condemn it? Yup that’s a million dollars. Falling into the ocean because of coastal erosion? It has an extra bathroom, it’s 1.5M.
I joke obviously but I’m not that far off either.
I mean, the coasts aren’t really that densely populated. If we build nicer cities there would be plenty of potential space.
Instead we build shitty suburbs and sprawl, which will always lead to awful, expensive cities
this reminds me of the then they came for me thing. I remember when you could pick up a cheap home if you moved to like iowa. Its not as expensive but its not cheap like before.
Yep. I’m about as smack-in-the-middle as you can get and our home has doubled in value since 2016.
I bought my house a year ago and its estimated value has gone up 50% since then (and the estimate isn’t even aware of all the renovations I’ve been doing). It’s meaningless since I bought it for cash and I’m not going to sell it (mainly because I then wouldn’t be able to find any other house to live in for a reasonable price), but it’s kind of nice to know personally even if it is a symptom of an ongoing social calamity.
I didn’t look at the list, but housing prices are out of control in a lot of places, even if they haven’t hit that $1 million mark yet. A $750k starter home is just as absurd and out of reach for the vast majority of Americans.
We’re telling young people not to have kids and not to buy homes. And it’s everywhere, not just California.
Texas is getting hit hard because it’s gone from very affordable to super expensive quickly.
Homes in my area have tripled in cost over past 5 years.
super expensive
There are very few places in Texas that are super expensive.
