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.”
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.