The World’s Most Expensive Cities

Source: Statista

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Worldwide Cost of Living survey named Singapore, Osaka and Hong Kong the world’s most expensive cities today. Using New York as a benchmark, the research compared the price of 160 items in different cities around the world.

The current survey was compiled in November 2019 before the outbreak of COVID-19 and the pandemic has already had a major impact on the global financial system. Cities that rely heavily on income from tourism, including Hong Kong and Singapore, could see their economies contract and their cost of living fall. That is likely to result in very different results in future editions of the ranking.

This year’s survey was notable as it saw Osaka displacing Paris in the top-three due to a strengthening of the yen which also resulted in Tokyo climbing from 13th place to joint 9th. New York and Los Angeles are also among the world’s most expensive cities, coming 4th and 9th respectively. They were influenced by a combination of firm domestic demand and strong local currency.

Infographic: The World's Most Expensive Cities | Statista

The U.S. Will Gain 23 New $1 Million Cities Within the Next Year

There are currently 197 cities in the U.S. with a median home value of $1 million or more, with 33 of those cities breaking the $1 million threshold in just the past year

Seattle, WA – Aug. 9, 2018 (PRNewswire) Over the next year, 23 more cities across the U.S. will make Zillow’s “$1 Million City List,” defined as a city with a median home value of $1 million or more.

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The U.S. currently has 197 $1 million cities, with 33 of those breaking the seven-figure threshold in just the past 12 months, according to a new Zillow® analysis.

While home values in the U.S. are expected to rise 6.6 percent over the next year, some hot markets, especially in California, are expected to have home-value appreciation in the double digits. The San Francisco metro is forecasted to gain seven $1 million cities by June 2019, with Fairfax, East Palo Alto and Broadmoor Village expected to appreciate the most among those cities. San Francisco currently has 46 $1 million cities — more than any other metro in the analysis.

Pricey cities aren’t the only places experiencing rapid home-value growth — home values are rising across the country, with the median home value in the U.S. higher than ever before. Over the past year, U.S. home values rose over 8 percent to $217,300. According to the most recent Zillow Housing Aspirations Report(i), more than 70 percent of renters say they often think about owning a home, but 66 percent of them cite saving for a down payment as one of the key impediments holding them back.

The Los Angeles metro is expected to gain five new $1 million cities in the next year, and the New York metro will gain three. Boston, Seattle and San Jose will each have two cities that will appreciate to a median home value of $1 million or more in the next year.

“The number of million-dollar cities has doubled over the past five years. These markets tend to be affluent and exclusive suburbs with very strict building restrictions in communities adjacent to finance and tech hubs,” says Aaron Terrazas, Zillow senior economist. “Although home value growth is expected to slow over the next year, particularly at the high end of the housing market, the number of cities where more than half of homes are valued in the seven digits is expected to jump to a new all-time high over the next 12 months.”

Biltmore Forest, N.C., in the Asheville metro, is forecast to be the first $1 million city in North Carolina. The current median home value in Biltmore Forest is $978,900. Zillow forecasts the median home value in Biltmore Forest to rise 2.7 percent over the next year, to $1,005,018.

Anna Maria, Fla., in the Sarasota metro, is expected to become the first $1 million city there. The current median home value is $964,200 and is forecast to reach $1,009,404 within the next year.

Here’s the list of 23 cities that are forecast to become $1 million cities over the next year:

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Number of $1 million cities within the largest U.S. metros:

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Zillow® is the leading real estate and rental marketplace dedicated to empowering consumers with data, inspiration and knowledge around the place they call home, and connecting them with great real estate professionals. Zillow serves the full lifecycle of owning and living in a home: buying, selling, renting, financing, remodeling and more. Zillow Offers provides homeowners in some metropolitan areas with the opportunity to receive offers from Zillow. When Zillow buys a home, it will make necessary updates and list the home for resale on the open market.

In addition to Zillow.com, Zillow operates the most popular suite of mobile real estate apps, with more than two dozen apps across all major platforms. Launched in 2006, Zillow is owned and operated by Zillow Group (NASDAQ:Z and ZG) and headquartered in Seattle.

Zillow is a registered trademark of Zillow, Inc. Zillow Offers is a trademark of Zillow, Inc.

i. The Zillow Housing Aspirations Report is a semi-annual survey computed from an IPSOS poll which combines a sample of 10,000 U.S. adults from 20 U.S. core-based statistical area (CBSA) metropolitans (Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, St. Louis, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Tampa, and Washington, D.C.) age 18+, surveyed online in English. This version of the survey was fielded from March 16-28, 2018. The survey has a credibility interval of plus or minus 1.1 percentage points for all respondents from the 20 U.S. metropolitans and approximately 5.0 percentage points for an individual U.S. metropolitan. Post-hoc weights were made to the population characteristics on gender, age, region, and race and ethnicity. For more information about conducting research intended for public release or Ipsos’ online polling methodology, please visit the Public Opinion Polling and Communication page.

ii. The Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI) is the median estimated home value for a given geographic area on a given day and includes the value of all single-family residences, condominiums and cooperatives, regardless of whether they sold within a given period. It is expressed in dollars, and seasonally adjusted.



S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Prices: All 20 Cities Up Year-Over-Year

New York, NY – March 27, 2018 (PRNewswire) S&P Dow Jones Indices today released the latest results for the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices. Data released today for January 2018 shows that home prices continued their rise across the country over the last 12 months. More than 27 years of history for these data series is available, and can be accessed in full by going to www.homeprice.spdji.com. Additional content on the housing market can also be found on S&P Dow Jones Indices’ housing blog: www.housingviews.com.

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YEAR-OVER-YEAR

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index, covering all nine U.S. census divisions, reported a 6.2% annual gain in January, down from 6.3% in the previous month. The 10-City Composite annual increase came in at 6.0%, no change from the previous month. The 20-City Composite posted a 6.4% year-over-year gain, up from 6.3% in the previous month.

Seattle, Las Vegas, and San Francisco reported the highest year-over-year gains among the 20 cities. In January, Seattle led the way with a 12.9% year-over-year price increase, followed by Las Vegas with an 11.1% increase and San Francisco with a 10.2% increase. Twelve of the 20 cities reported greater price increases in the year ending January 2018 versus the year ending December 2017.

The charts on the following page compare year-over-year returns of different housing price ranges (tiers) for the top two cities, Seattle and Las Vegas.

MONTH-OVER-MONTH

Before seasonal adjustment, the National Index posted a month-over-month gain of 0.05% in January. The 10-City and 20-City Composites both reported increases of 0.3%. After seasonal adjustment, the National Index recorded a 0.5% month-over-month increase in January. The 10-City and 20-City Composites posted 0.7% and 0.8% month-over-month increases, respectively. Sixteen of the 20 cities reported increases in January before seasonal adjustment, while all 20 cities reported increases after seasonal adjustment.

ANALYSIS

“The home price surge continues,” says David M. Blitzer, Managing Director and Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “Since the market bottom in December 2012, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price index has climbed at a 4.7% real – inflation adjusted – annual rate. That is twice the rate of economic growth as measured by the GDP. While price gains vary from city to city, there are few, if any, really weak spots. Seattle, up 12.9% in the last year, continues to see the largest gains, followed by Las Vegas up 11.1% over the same period. Even Chicago and Washington, the cities with the smallest price gains, saw a 2.4% annual increase in home prices.

“Two factors supporting price increases are the low inventory of homes for sale and the low vacancy rate among owner-occupied housing. The current months-supply — how many months at the current sales rate would be needed to absorb homes currently for sale — is 3.4; the average since 2000 is 6.0 months, and the high in July 2010 was 11.9. Currently, the homeowner vacancy rate is 1.6% compared to an average of 2.1% since 2000; it peaked in 2010 at 2.7%. Despite limited supplies, rising prices, and higher mortgage rates, affordability is not a concern. Affordability measures published by the National Association of Realtors show that a family with a median income could comfortably afford a mortgage for a median priced home.”

SUPPORTING DATA

Table 1 below shows the housing boom/bust peaks and troughs for the three composites along with the current levels and percentage changes from the peaks and troughs.

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Table 2 below summarizes the results for January 2018. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices are revised for the prior 24 months, based on the receipt of additional source data.

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Table 3 below shows a summary of the monthly changes using the seasonally adjusted (SA) and non-seasonally adjusted (NSA) data. Since its launch in early 2006, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices have published, and the markets have followed and reported on, the non-seasonally adjusted data set used in the headline indices. For analytical purposes, S&P Dow Jones Indices publishes a seasonally adjusted data set covered in the headline indices, as well as for the 17 of 20 markets with tiered price indices and the five condo markets that are tracked.

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For more information about S&P Dow Jones Indices, please visit www.spdji.com.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION:

David Blitzer
Managing Director and Chairman of Index Committee
New York, USA
(+1) 212 438 3907
david.blitzer@spglobal.com

Soogyung Jordan
Global Head of Communications
New York, USA
(+1) 212 438 2297
soogyung.jordan@spglobal.com

Luke Shane
North America Communications
New York, USA
(+1) 212 438 8184
luke.shane@spglobal.com

S&P Dow Jones Indices’ interactive blog, HousingViews.com, delivers real-time commentary and analysis from industry experts across S&P Global on a wide-range of topics impacting residential home prices, homebuilding and mortgage financing in the United States. Readers and viewers can visit the blog at www.housingviews.com, where feedback and commentary is welcomed and encouraged.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices are published on the last Tuesday of each month at 9:00 am ET. They are constructed to accurately track the price path of typical single-family homes located in each metropolitan area provided. Each index combines matched price pairs for thousands of individual houses from the available universe of arms-length sales data. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index tracks the value of single-family housing within the United States. The index is a composite of single-family home price indices for the nine U.S. Census divisions and is calculated quarterly. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 10-City Composite Home Price Index is a value-weighted average of the 10 original metro area indices. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price Index is a value-weighted average of the 20 metro area indices. The indices have a base value of 100 in January 2000; thus, for example, a current index value of 150 translates to a 50% appreciation rate since January 2000 for a typical home located within the subject market.

These indices are generated and published under agreements between S&P Dow Jones Indices and CoreLogic, Inc.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices are produced by CoreLogic, Inc. In addition to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices, CoreLogic also offers home price index sets covering thousands of zip codes, counties, metro areas, and state markets. The indices, published by S&P Dow Jones Indices, represent just a small subset of the broader data available through CoreLogic.

Case-Shiller® and CoreLogic® are trademarks of CoreLogic Case-Shiller, LLC or its affiliates or subsidiaries (“CoreLogic”) and have been licensed for use by S&P Dow Jones Indices. None of the financial products based on indices produced by CoreLogic or its predecessors in interest are sponsored, sold, or promoted by CoreLogic, and neither CoreLogic nor any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, or predecessors in interest makes any representation regarding the advisability of investing in such products.