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.
Actually, I’d be saying that even more.
People aren’t buying the house. They’re buying the location/
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
Sure, there are remote coastal areas, but nearly all of Americas most important cities are coastal
Systemic issue, California is just showing the rot stronger than other places. It’s a growing issue for the whole country.
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.
There are very few places in Texas that are super expensive.
I am more focussed on the term “sorry affordable”
So you’re not from Texas then
Not from Texas, for sure. But I can say with confidence that there are very, very few places in TX that are “super expensive” compared to California, which was the subject at hand.