This Is How Much Space $300,000 Buys In Cities Around The World

The bull market in hot urban retail and commercial real estate markets lasted for pretty much the entire post-crisis recovery period. But COVID has turned things around, and as people flee to the suburbs, it's worth taking a look at how valuations have declined.

While urban real-estate markets have taken a hit as people flee to the suburbs and more space, it's worth taking a look at how much space costs in different cities around the world. While foreign cities are of course cheaper than the top American metropolises, the numbers in some cases might surprise you.

Why $300K? On the one hand, because it’s the first round figure close to the national median listing price, and on the other hand, because according to forecasts for the next year, the market is headed there. We considered 1,700 square feet — the median living space in the US according to the Geography of Home Size and Occupancy report published by the National Association of Home Builders in 2011 – as a comparison base for our results.

Square footage price isn’t usually used as the only yardstick for home value, since location, property type, amenities and other factors play a significant role as well. But it does work very well if you just want to get your bearings and have a general idea about how much value you can get for your money.

In the United States, here are how things are looking like today

Forget about finding something decent for $300,000 in the first 20-something cities in the US. Start with Dallas, TX if you’d like an average house for that price.
An average sized home in Manhattan would cost upwards of $3,000,000 – over ten times as much as the median listing price. For that kind of money, you could buy a 1,700 square foot home in Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Los Angeles each!
For the price of one median-size home in San Francisco, you could buy homes in Phoenix, Mesa and Tucson AZ, Portland OR and a pad in Vegas, and a snazzy $169,490 sports car to drive from one estate to the next.
$300,000 can buy you 4 median sized houses in Detroit.
You can buy two median sized homes and a 1,000 sq. ft. condo in Memphis for the median price of a median home in the US.

The median American home price, which is roughly $300,000, can buy a whopping 2,100 square feet in Houston, and nearly 1.5x that in Johannesburg. But in San Francisco and Singapore, that number buys just 300 square feet.

The median U.S. home price, $300,000, buys almost 5,000 square feet in Delhi, but only 144 square feet in Hong Kong.
Looking at the two extremes in America, homebuyers in Houston could get seven times more space compared to their fellow house-hunters in San Francisco.
In Canada, Ottawa offers the most space for $300,000, while Lisbon, Portugal would be a buyer’s best bet of all the European cities included in the analysis.

Hong Kong's infamously tiny apartments are probably not the ideal place for riding out a pandemic. But that's why the city's real estate market has taken such a hit (well, at least that's one reason).

In the US, Houston appears to be the city that offers the best value, as buyers get the highest ratio of square footage per dollar. With the added bonus of living in one of America's largest and most economically vital cities.

As the formerly city-loving millennial generation sets its sights on the suburbs, and young adults who have fallen on hard times move back in with their middle-class parents, is it possible that cities like NYC could see the economic progress of the last 30 years slip away? Crime is already rising at an alarming rate, and not only in New York.

“Never have understood the attraction.”
__________________________________

I have 2 concerns when it comes to purchasing ‘air.’

First, I am deathly afraid of heights. If I cannot safely roll out of a window and hit the ground in one piece, albeit a bruised one piece, I’m out of there.

Second, to my own way of thinking a person is simply buying ‘air.’ I just cannot get around that perception.

I understand the person who likes to live high up in a nice building. Those who can sleep at night in a building that stands hundreds of feet in the air are indeed brave souls.

I simply cannot do it, myself.

Let me explain about the difference “I cannot make the money I make in Manhattan in Arkansas”.

Sit down & make a list of what you are living on near Manhattan. THE NET INCOME you are living on.

Be honest- list everything—even tips to doormen & valets.

Make sure that your paper has 2 columns on it....One for Manhattan & one for Arkansas.

Then look long & hard at the differences in the COST OF LIVING between those 2 places.

IN fact-—there is a website “BEST PLACES” that will do similar for you in a general sense...

However, I want you to be specific & use your real living expenses.

Housing
Property taxes
Auto costs-—fuel-registration-parking-repairs & fast depreciation due to winter salt on the roads.
Clothing
Entertainment
FOOD purchases for home preparation
Eating out-—including lunch every day
GRUB HUB & delivered already prepared food.....

Get specific...go thru all your checkbooks & your credit card
receipts.

Don’t cheat......Be fair to yourself.

Also-—assess how SAFE you feel where you are. That one factor can be enough to make you rethink how marvelous it is where you are making alot of money.

You might be really surprised how ARTIFICIAL your current living standards are.

I am retired, but I had 3 houses since 1966 and I parlayed those into buying this 3rd one being purchased for cash. NO MORTGAGE.

I have over 5 acres. I have a house that was brand new when I bought it. MY current property taxes are UNDER $760 annually. I am NOT living in a shack. I am not in anywhere near the danger I was in In So Calif. I have clean Air. I have clean water. I can buy a gun or ammo without 89 layers of government control. I don’t have 11 stop signs between me & the Federal highway.

I have 4 seasons, but not the winters you fight. NO salt on our roads. I have a station wagon, a 1 ton dually truck, and a 4 horse trailer. ALL 3 registrations don’t add up to $200.
MY power bills are under $100 monthly. My propane per gallon was $1.85 on the last delivery.

In my experience as a life long accounting person...the cost of living where your job is determines how much you will be paid. IT IS NOT A MEASURE OF YOUR SUPERIOR JOB PERFORMANCE.
It is only a measure of what your employer MUST pay to get you to live where it is so expensive.

Be fair in your numbers.

You might find that Arkansas isn’t such a bad idea after all.
You cannot control your crazy Governor. He is strangling all of you there-—at least the ones he hasn’t already killed with moving active Virus a into the nursing homes.

Check out the website Best Places. They let you COMPARE different places against where you are now.

Arkansas can be expensive or otherwise, depending on what is being required or wanted, by a buyer. We chose Ark for retirement because we wanted the space of the west, southwest, and proximity to relatives in all directions. We also wanted rural with a small acreage for various interests and privacy. We have lived in a number of states, all of which have grown from nice size towns to a million or more population. I expect that Ark will experience more rapid growth as other states become less attractive to their taxpayers and their state govts become too liberal to vote out. The growth around our major cities has already become quite evident. We enjoy what we have and thank God for our circumstances. Arkansas is still red but the college towns are moving in on that. Arkansas is a great state to live in and a buyer just has to pick the right spot for their needs and interest.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.