In nearly 500 cities across the United States, the average home is now worth more than $1 million.
New research from Zillow reveals that there are now 481 locations where the average home is valued at $1 million or more, according to the company. According to Zillow’s list of “million-dollar cities,” there were 285 sites on the list in 2019.
The New York City and San Francisco metro regions are at the top of the list when it comes to the number of cities with properties worth at least $1 million. In each of these regions, there are a total of 76 prestigious cities and towns that qualify.
Home values frequently exceed $1 million in Sagaponack, New York, and Alpine, New Jersey, two villages in the greater New York City area where properties are regularly valued at $1 million or more.
Zillow’s “million-dollar cities” list is not based on actual sales data, but rather on the company’s own estimates of home values. Essentially, they are an extension of Zillow’s “Zestimates,” which real estate experts say maybe “very hit or miss” when it comes to determining an individual home’s genuine worth at any given time.
California is home to a startling 44 percent of all the cities on this year’s list, according to the American Planning Association. These communities are among the newcomers to the list for this year: Hill Country Village in Texas, Lac La Belle in Wisconsin, Crested Butte in Colorado, and Mission Viejo in California.
Home values have skyrocketed as a result of the rise in demand for property that occurred last year, especially in areas where prices were already surging, according to Jeff Tucker, the senior economist at Zillow.
That increase in demand is partly due to the coronavirus pandemic, which heralded the beginning of a new era of record-low mortgage rates and resulted in millions of Americans working from the comfort of their own homes.
Because of this, there was a surge in interest in real estate, as well as a scarcity of available properties, which increased demand even more and drove prices to rise. The average mortgage payment recently reached a new high of $1,454, representing a $350 increase over the previous year.
In 2021, a year in which the average home’s price increased by over 20%, 146 new towns will have reached the $1 million mark for the first time. City names on the list appeared for the first time in the states of Idaho, Montana, and Tennessee – a hint, according to Tucker, that “the geography of wealth in the United States has begun to alter.”
If current rates of property appreciation continue at their current levels, Zillow estimates that an additional 49 locations will be added to the list by the middle of the year.
Where one-million-dollar mansions may be found everywhere
According to Zillow data, the following are the top ten metro regions with the highest number of $1 million cities as of December:
New York, New York: 76
San Francisco, California: 76
Los Angeles, California: 57
San Jose, California: 22
Boston, Massachusetts: 18
Seattle, Washington: 16
Miami, Florida: 14
Washington, D.C.: 11
Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, California: 9
Santa Rosa, California: 9
There is a good chance that you will be disappointed if you were anticipating that the scorching hot housing market will begin to cool this winter. During the month of January this year, homes sold at the fastest rate on record, with the average house remaining on the market for only 61 days on average.
It’s no surprise that 70 percent of Americans say that now is a horrible time to purchase a home. It’s a safe bet that many homebuyers will be racing to lock in mortgages before rates increase even further, especially with mortgage rates now at their highest level since May 2019.
‘Even the most costly homes are selling quickly in this market,’ said Erik Throm, a San Francisco-based real estate agent with Fast Real Estate.
Potential homebuyers should be prepared with a pre-qualification letter before beginning their search, and they should work with a local realtor who is familiar with the ins and outs of their targeted communities, according to Throm.
