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List of $1M (Home Value) Cities Could Grow by 23 in the Next Year

By Matthew Speakman on 9 Aug 2018

If all you do is keep up with the Kardashians or follow the Real Housewives, you might get the impression that everyone lives in spendy markets where the typical home tops $1 million.

In reality, only 197 cities of more than 10,000 analyzed have a median home value of $1 million or more. A year ago, that number was 164 – 33 cities nationwide crossed into $1 million median territory over the past year. Another 23 cities are expected to join the list in the coming year.

Unsurprisingly, the coasts are clustered with $1 million real estate markets – especially in California, where more than half (111) of the nation’s million-dollar markets can be found, including the Kardashians’ beloved Hidden Hills ($3.2 million median home value) and Calabasas ($1.2 million). The next most highly represented state is New York, with 30 million-dollar cities – and the New York City metro area, which includes New Jersey, has 41.

But there’s at least one million-dollar community in 19 states nationwide, including seven states with one and only one:

• Paradise Valley, Phoenix metro area, Arizona, $1.7 million
• Sea Island, Brunswick metro, Georgia, $2.2 million
• New Castle, Boston metro, New Hampshire, $1.2 million
• Sullivan’s Island, Charleston metro, South Carolina, $1.8 million
• Glenbrook, Gardnerville Ranchos metro near Lake Tahoe, Nevada, $1.7 million
• New Shoreham, Providence metro, Rhode Island, $1.1 million
• Great Falls, Washington, D.C. metro, Virginia, $1 million

The usual suspects make the list, including Beverly Hills (median $3.5 million), Malibu ($3 million) and Bridgehampton and East Hampton in, you know, the Hamptons ($2.7 million and $1.5 million, respectively).

So does Medina in the Seattle metro area, a town that may not ring a bell to some, but is home to the two richest people in the world, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. Its median home value is $2.8 million.

The U.S. city with the highest median home value is Atherton, Calif., a Silicon Valley neighbor to Menlo Park and Redwood City. Atherton’s median home is worth $6.9 million. That’s more than 31 times the June 2018 median U.S. home value of $217,300.

Like those communities already on the list, the 23 cities expected to join the list of $1 million cities over the coming year lean heavily coastal: 14 are in California – and nine of those are in the Bay Area. They include East Palo Alto, which is expected to have a median home value of $1.1 million by June 2019. It will join its cousin Palo Alto, where the median home value in June 2018 was $3.3 million.

The other upcoming $1 million cities are in coastal states as well, although not necessarily on the coast itself: Anna Maria in the Sarasota area of Florida; Belmont and Lexington in the Boston metro; Biltmore Forest in the Asheville, N.C., metro; Woodbury and Roslyn in the New York metro area; and Bellevue and Sammamish in the Seattle area.

Interestingly, of the 23 cities expected to cross the $1 million in the next year, three had actually crossed the threshold in prior years, before median home values toppled during the Great Recession. Those three markets are:

• La Habra Heights, Los Angeles Metro, California (Peak ZHVI: $1,022,400, March 2006)
• Woodbury, New York City Metro, New York ($1,064,700, April 2006)
• Franklin Lakes, New York City Metro, New Jersey ($1,225,200, July 2006)

All of the anticipated newcomers (or, in some cases, “returners”) had median home values above $800,000 in June 2018, with forecasted growth over the next year ranging from a low of 2.7 percent in Biltmore Forest, N.C., to 18.3 percent in Burbank, Calif.

The number of million-dollar cities has doubled over the past five years. These markets tend to be affluent and exclusive suburbs in communities adjacent to finance and tech hubs. Although home value growth is expected to slow over the next year, particularly at the high end of the 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.

Here’s the full list of 23: