A $1 million starter home is now the norm in more than 200 US cities | CNN Business
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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.

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.”

  • Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee
    3·
    3 months ago

    I’m wondering what a “starter home” is in this case.

    For me that’d be about 40sqm and 150k €

    Are people buying bigger homes than they need?

    • Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      1·
      3 months ago

      It’s nearly impossible to find smaller homes in some areas of the US. I lucked out and bought an 800 sq ft home for my starter. I’m now in a 1600 Sq ft condo and it’s more room than my partner and I need. I’m hoping to downsize.

    • tiredofsametab@kbin.run
      1·
      3 months ago

      I lived in a house in Japan that was a rental. It was about 55sqm + loft with a parking space out front (which became my container garden). It was pretty good for the wife and I with me working from home (so using the 2nd bedroom as an office). I looked at what it would cause to buy a similar house used (far western Tokyo about 1.5 hours to Shinjuku station, neighbors on two sides the legally required 90cm or whatever it was away) – 50 million yen give or take a bit. Someone might look at the price in USD or EUR or something and think it’s not much, but it is for someone getting paid in said yen.

    • SlippiHUD@lemmy.worldEnglish
      35·
      3 months ago

      America is deeply obsessed with single family homes.

      Most homes are 90 m² or larger. I’m in a medium sized city in the midwest and I have a 3 bedroom 130 m² home I got for 115€ but it’s already inflated in value in the last 15 months to 138€. I wouldn’t be able to afford the house I purchased 15 months ago, if I was house shopping now. And homes currently cost nearly double what they did in 2019.