Hawaii tops the list of states with the highest average home price, according to an annual Coldwell Banker Real Estate study made public Wednesday.
The average listing price of a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home in the isles was $742,551, the study said, far exceeding the average of $489,063 in second-ranked Massachusetts and the $431,625 average for No. 3 California.The Home Listing Report includes 2,479 markets and puts the national average listing for a home that size at $292,152. Coldwell Banker said it analyzed more than 72,000 home listings from January to June 2012.
The most affordable homes are in Nebraska, with average listings at $145,360; Iowa, where the average listing is $162,621, and Georgia, at $169,625.
The story changes when individual markets instead of entire states are considered. Eight of the top 10 most expensive individual markets are in California, most in the San Francisco Bay area, driven by the vibrant tech industry which includes employers such as Apple, Facebook and Google.
The No. 1 U.S. market is Los Altos, Calif., with an average price of $1.71 million for a four-bedroom, two-bath home. It is followed by Newport Beach, at $1.66 million; Saratoga, at $1.58 million; Menlo Park, at $1.51 million; and Palo Alto, at $1.50 million.
Kailua, the top Hawaii market on the list, ranked No. 8 in the nation with an average price of $1.24 million for a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home. The Home Listing Report only looked at Oahu communities, despite high-value residential real estate on other islands.
Honolulu is ranked 35th at $861,379, and Mililani is at No. 137 with an average of $601,316. Only two other Oahu communities made the report this year: No. 226 Kapolei, with an average of $522,020, and No. 281 Ewa Beach, with an average listing price of $489,830 for a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home.
The only non-California market in the top 10 besides Kailua was Rye, N.Y., 30 miles north of New York City, where the average home was selling for $1.3 million, according to the study.
The price disparity is striking in that the cost of one home in No. 1 market of Los Altos would buy 28 four-bedroom homes in the most affordable market, Redford, Mich., a suburb of Detroit, where the average listing price is $60,490. In fact, the $60,000 list price of the Michigan home would not even cover the typical 6 percent real estate agent fees on the sale of a Los Altos home.
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