San Francisco, New York still most expensive places to own a home
It’s little surprise, but San Francisco and New York City still top the list of the most expensive cities in the United States in which to own a home.
But what is surprising about the latest such ranking by the Center for Housing Policy, is how far the median housing values in these two markets fell in just one year. Depending on how you look at it, that is one positive byproduct of the U.S. housing crash.
The median housing price in San Francisco in 2008 came in at $575,000. In 2007, that figure stood at a much more imposing $770,000. In New York City, the median housing price in 2008 was $455,000. In 2007, that figure stood at $525,000.
Now, even today, those median housing prices are high, and probably out of the reach of most people who’d choose to live in either city. But at least they’ve been brought down to earth a bit. I know the folks who already own homes in the cities won’t be hapy about it, but those housing prices had to come back at least a little. They were unrealistically high.
Rounding out the top five most expensive cities to own a home are San Jose, Calif., with a median housing price of $410,000; Santa Cruz, Calif., and Honolulu, both of which boast the same median housing price of $400,000.
By the way, the list of least expensive cities in which to live ends in a tie. The median housing price in both Saginaw, Mich., and Youngstown, Ohio, came in at $73,000.
