Just don’t live in a city geez
Edit: Yes, my quest for downvotes is successful.
I aim to be karma neutral on the fediverse and had a pretty good day I need to counteract.
A couple years ago this was the “just don’t live in California” argument.
That’s where the jobs are.
Not much for good paying work in podunk towns.
Just commute for an hour to work every day. Ew, no, we don’t want to fund buses, that’s for poors. Pay for it yourself.
At which point, Id have to spend the money saved on housing on buying, fueling, maintaining and insuring a car, if I was even able to drive one in the first place.
Well… define starter home. I got a starter for about half that in LA but I have a shared wall townhome. Not great, but if we’re talking no shared walls and a yard, ya I can see that costing more… Except I also saw those for about this price, only with like… 600sq ft? Pick you battles, but those aren’t a million even in the city.
Now, maybe the 200 cities are specific neighborhoods, like how Santa Monica isn’t technically Los Angeles since it’s got it’s own city government. Same with Beverly Hills, Bel Air, etc. You sure as hell ain’t getting a place for 1 mil there, even if it’s a small “starter home.”
All of your question are answered right at the beginning of the article:
“Zillow defines “cities” as distinct housing markets, which can include large suburbs, towns or boroughs within major metro areas. “Starter homes” are defined as properties in the bottom third of home values within a given market. That means these aren’t luxury listings — they’re the least expensive homes available in each city.”
Gotcha. So yes, it’s misleading headline, mostly for the first part since you can probably pull up 200 “cities” where you’d be nuts to find your first home. You aren’t getting your first home in Malibu, that’s just silly.
This…is hard to believe. I’ve been looking around non-major US cities, and even some major cities, and the starter homes are around 200-500k.
That’s still fucked for a starter home but a million??? That’s the average home price in Honolulu and NYC lol.
It literally sounds super fake.
I can’t find a single major city without 200k to 350k homes lol
It takes like 30 seconds to check what starter homes cost in any city, yet people will believe this shit instead of just go look.
Edit: this is the “source” https://www.zillow.com/research/million-dollar-start-home-2025-35100/
Just 1 chart with literally zero further info, no published actual data of where these numbers came from, how they calculated them, how they gathered the data.
Why do people fall for empty garbage articles like this so easy. I wish we collectively called this out more.
If a person posts an article citing another article, instead of just the original article, they should get fuckin blasted for it and downvoted to hell.
Post. Original. Sources.
I quite kiterally cant find anything in my city for less than 900k, and they are rare
Doesn’t sound super fake if you are looking for a place with what I think are pretty reasonable basic characteristics of comfort and security.
House that can accommodate a small family not in a higher than average crime area, does not require fix up maintenance that those of us working long hours will never have time to do or can’t afford to have done, has been well cared for and doesn’t feel gross. I’m not talking luxury homes here, I’m just talking about something that you would at least look forward to coming home to.
When I see all these people buying these homes, I’m just shocked at how they have either accrued so much wealth or are so comfortable with so much debt.
It’s pretty tough out there right now.
“When I eliminate all the homes that normal people would classify as a starter home, I can’t find any starter homes!”
“Wait to buy a starter homes you are telling me I can’t live in a rich gentrified white neighborhood, I might have a black guy for a neighbour? That just won’t do!”
“Sorry anything not within 5 blocks of a Starbucks can’t possibly count as a starter home”
This is what people sound like when they talk about “safety” and “crime rates” and “starter homes” in the same sentence.
approximately half of homes have to be in higher than average crime areas, if there’s nothing wrong with the home it can just be purchased and rented out by a megacorp immediately, wealth accumulates over time so that selling a house will provide about enough to buy house and have lower average monthly cost than renting.
As someone who has lived in and priced out homes in major US cities, I find this article to be accurate.
Try looking in San Francisco, or any city in the entire Bay Area. You won’t find a 500sq ft shack for less than $800k.
3 seconds of looking and I found five houses under 500k. Two of them genuinely look pretty decent too tbh, not even rough looking homes.
This is the inevitable result of infinite growth. You aren’t getting a home in world class locations without being at the very top yourself. Sure other people lucked into the right place and the right time. Go buy lottery tickets. Or set down in location that is more affordable. With any luck you’ll be a multimillionaire when you’re elderly too. And the kids of the year 2060 will hate you for the dastardly plot you schemed up with your friends to ruin everything.
We’re all part of the rat race that is fucking us over. Nobody wants to flinch. So we continue to eat each other alive.