The Most Expensive Places to Buy a (Normal) Home in Each State
Every other state’s most expensive city falls somewhere between that million-dollar difference; most fall somewhere in between.
Coldwell Banker recently ran the numbers on almost every community in the country and found the most expensive places to buy a normal family-size home in each state. Of course, California’s many pricey cities and suburbs stuff the top of the list, but the top isn’t necessarily what you’d think. The most expensive place to own a home isn’t Beverly Hills or San Francisco; it’s Newport Beach.
That’s because when we say “home” here, we mean it a little more literally than usual: Coldwell Banker looked only at the average price of a four-bedroom, two-bathroom house, or roughly the size of a standard (if not a little large) family home. So, on the top of this list, you won’t find Los Angeles’ gargantumansion neighborhoods—too high a concentration of homes with lots of bedrooms and bathrooms—nor the million-dollar studios of Manhattan.
The intent isn’t to compare where millionaires buy their multimillion-dollar estates. Only a handful of states have any area where the median 4BR/2BA price tops six figures.
The national median list price for a house of this size is $302,632, though several states have zero cities where the median is even that high. Other states exceed that median in almost every town – in New Hampshire, for instance, only Claremont dips below the national median. Almost no place in the entire state is as cheap as any place in Nebraska or South Dakota.
Some states are just pricier than others. Roughly 90 percent of Colorado’s cities are more expensive than every city in Kansas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Dakota, where home prices are cheapest.
The most extreme example of pricey homes, though, is naturally California, where almost half of towns top half a million dollars for family-size homes.
Check out the most expensive place to buy a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home in each state:
ALABAMA
A beach in Fairhope. (Thinkstock)
Fairhope, a city on Mobile Bay
Average listing price: $301,665
ALASKA
Anchorage during one of Alaska’s long nights. (Thinkstock)
Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city
Average listing price: $374,731
ARIZONA
Downtown Scottsdale, Arizona. (Keith Evans, Flickr)
Scottsdale, a wealthy suburb of Phoenix
Average listing price: $505,391
ARKANSAS
Downtown Fayetteville. (Thinkstock)
Fayetteville, northwestern Arkansas
Average listing price: $266,348
CALIFORNIA
Newport Beach harbor.
Newport Beach, outside Los Angeles in Orange County
Average listing price: $2.29 million
COLORADO
Boulder, Colorado from afar. (Thinkstock)
Boulder, west of Denver
Average listing price: $1.04 million
CONNECTICUT
Greenwich (Connecticut) time (Doug Kerr)
Greenwich, a wealthy New York City suburb
Average listing price: $1.29 million
DELAWARE
The University of Delaware’s campus (Ottawa80)
Newark, home of University of Delaware
Average listing price: $357,173
FLORIDA
Golf in Doral, Florida. (Thinkstock)
Doral, a Miami suburb that takes its name from a golf and spa resort
Average listing price: $552,390
GEORGIA
The historic Dunwoody Farmhouse, built in 1906. (Mmann1988)
Dunwoody, a northern suburb of Atlanta
Average listing price: $407,116
HAWAII
Honolulu, Hawaii
Honolulu
Average listing price: $1.13 million
IDAHO
A candy shop/hotel in Eagle, Idaho. (NikonFDSLR)
Eagle, an up-and-coming small city just outside Boise
Average listing price: $398,436
ILLINOIS
Winnetka is home to the quintessential wealthy suburban family home, Kevin McCallister’s in “Home Alone.” (anarchosyn)
Winnetka, the richest suburb in Illinois
Average listing price: $901,844
INDIANA
This four-bedroom, two-bathroom home in St. John is listed for $389,000. (Zillow)
St. John, a small community in northwestern Indiana, about 40 miles from Chicago
Average listing price: $397,004
IOWA
West Des Moines. Mark Hesseltine writes on Flickr: “To look at this barn, you might think it’s on some secluded farm at the end of a gravel road. At one point, it was. Today, however, this little farmstead exists in the middle of a developed suburban area.”
West Des Moines, a suburb of Des Moines
Average listing price: $363,008
KANSAS
A sunrise over Prairie Village, Kansas. (Steve Revare)
Prairie Village, a suburb of Kansas City
Average listing price: $260,938
KENTUCKY
Tract housing built as Union sprawled over the past three decades. (Derek Jensen)
Union, a small town south of Cincinnati
Average listing price: $271,753
LOUISIANA
A four-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom home in Belle Chasse for $375,000. (Zillow)
Belle Chasse, New Orleans suburb on the west banks of the Mississippi
Average listing price: $347,244
MAINE
Historic Kennebunkport. (Roman Boed)
Kennebunk/Kennebunkport, an oceanside vacation town
Average listing price: $517,315
MARYLAND
Movie theater in downtown Bethesda. (dcJohn)
Bethesda, outside Washington, D.C.
Average listing price: $782,300
MASSACHUSETTS
Harvard’s campus in Cambridge. (Thinkstock)
Cambridge, Harvard’s hometown
Average listing price: $1.11 million
MICHIGAN
The Woodward Dream Cruise in Birmingham. (Stephen K. Donnelly)
Birmingham, wealthy Detroit suburb known for shopping and cool cars
Average listing price: $563,191
MINNESOTA
Sunset over Lake Minnetonka near Orono, Minnesota. (jpellgen)
Orono, lakeside vacation homes for the uppercrust
Average listing price: $1.38 million
MISSISSIPPI
A four-bedroom, two-bathroom house in Terry, Mississippi for $249,000. (Zillow)
Terry, a small town southwest of Jackson, Mississippi
Average listing price: $267,259
MISSOURI
Kirkwood, Missouri. (Matt Ridings)
Kirkwood, a suburb of St. Louis
Average listing price: $399,821
MONTANA
Of course, a horse, near Bozeman. (Trace Neitert)
Bozeman, dubs itself “the most livable place”
Average listing price: $394,184
NEBRASKA
The Columbus Theater. (Jasperdo)
Columbus, a city in eastern Nebraska
Average listing price: $197,577
NEVADA
Gardnerville, Nevada. (Jasperdo)
Gardnerville, a small town 30 minutes from Lake Tahoe
Average listing price: $400,090
NEW HAMPSHIRE
A four-bedroom, three-bathroom house for $449,000 in Bedford, N.H. (Zillow)
Bedford
Average listing price: $479,892
NEW JERSEY
Main Street of Chatham, N.J. (Stephen Rees)
Chatham Township, a well-to-do suburb of New York City
Average listing price: $882,260
NEW MEXICO
Sante Fe, New Mexico. (Thinkstock)
Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico
Average listing price: $440,714
NEW YORK
The Playland in Rye, N.Y. – instantly recognizable to fans of the movie “Big.” (George Bremer, Flickr)
Rye, a suburb of New York City
Average listing price: $859,003
NORTH CAROLINA
An aerial view of Ocean Isle Beach. (Thinkstock)
Ocean Isle Beach, on the state’s southern coast
Average listing price: $437,361
NORTH DAKOTA
A replica Stave Church in the Scandinavian Heritage Park. (minnotmom)
Minot, a North Dakota town where 40 percent of residents have Scandinavian backgrounds
Average listing price: $273,361
OHIO
An Angry Birds float at the Independence Day parade in Upper Arlington, Ohio. (jinjian liang)
Upper Arlington, an affluent suburb west of The Ohio State University campus
Average listing price: $481,229
OKLAHOMA
Street art in the old town of Edmond, Oklahoma. (Serge Melki)
Edmond, a northeast suburb of Oklahoma City
Average listing price: $243,383
OREGON
The “old town” of West Linn. (Ulmanor)
West Linn, a historic suburb of Portland
Average listing price: $502,567
PENNSYLVANIA
New Hope’s tourist attractions. (VisitPA.com)
New Hope, a tourist town along the Delaware River between New York and Philadelphia
Average listing price: $745,518
RHODE ISLAND
East Greenwich Harbor, Rhode Island. (Marc Chaquotte)
East Greenwich, an affluent town near the coast
Average listing price: $479,892
SOUTH CAROLINA
A historic photo of Boone Hall Quarters in Mount Pleasant. (C.O. Greene)
Mount Pleasant, a city north of historic Charleston
Average listing price: $475,966
SOUTH DAKOTA
Ray’s in downtown Brookings, South Dakota. (Andy Perkins)
Brookings, home to South Dakota State University, on the Minnesota border
Average listing price: $237,775
TENNESSEE
Downtown Franklin during the holidays. (EAndJsFilmCrew, Flickr)
Franklin/Brentwood, affluent suburbs of Nashville
Average listing price: $382,329
TEXAS
Pleasure Pier in Galveston, Texas. (Katie Haugland)
Galveston/Tiki Island/Jamaica Beach, vacation spots on the Gulf Coast
Average listing price: $447,936
UTAH
Holladay driving. (Edgar Zuniga Jr.)
Holladay/Cottonwood Heights, growing suburbs of Salt Lake City
Average listing price: $463,332
VERMONT
Charlotte, Vermont’s town hall in the fall. (redjar)
Charlotte/Shelburne, idyllic towns on Lake Champlain
Average listing price: $619,044
VIRGINIA
Reston Town Center. (Payton Chung)
Reston/Vienna, suburban Washington, D.C.
Average listing price: $641,783
WASHINGTON
Hidden homes on Mercer Island. (Thinkstock)
Mercer Island, a peaceful island for Seattle’s wealthy
Average listing price: $1.06 million
WISCONSIN
A four-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Whitefish Bay for $449,000. (Zillow)
Whitefish Bay, home to Milwaukee’s most expensive ZIP Codes
Average listing price: $440,224
WEST VIRGINIA
Morgantown, W.V. (Darren Ringer)
Morgantown, home to West Virginia University along the Monangahela River
Average listing price: $285,517
WYOMING
Mint Bar in downtown Sheridan. (Bill Walsh)
Sheridan, a cowboy town beside the Bighorn Mountains
Average listing price: $295,360
More rankings on Yahoo Real Estate:
• The Most Dangerous Cities in America
• ’Biggest Log Cabin in the World’ Is Michigan’s Most Expensive Home (34 photos)
• Every State Ranked by Residents’ Financial Well-Being
• Yahoo Real Estate’s archive of city and state rankings
