Whether it’s a mansion in the suburbs or a penthouse in the city center, the price tag of any prime piece of real estate is usually measured in the millions.
Where in the United States can the most multi-million dollar homes be found – and which specific cities have the highest growth rates for high-end property listings?
Million Dollar Homes
Today’s interactive visualization comes to us from Overflow Data, and it shows the percentage of homes worth greater than a million dollars in each state, as well as D.C.
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The first thing that stands out here is the skewed distribution.
The rate of million dollar homes per state ranges from 0.5% (Indiana) to 17.3% (D.C.), but the median is only 1.1%. That means that the vast amount of states are closer to the zero end of the spectrum.
In fact, only six jurisdictions exceed the 4% mark:
| Rank | Jurisdiction | % of million dollar homes |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | Washington, D.C. | 17.3% |
| #2 | California | 13.6% |
| #3 | Hawaii | 13.5% |
| #4 | New York | 7.0% |
| #5 | Massachusetts | 5.2% |
| #6 | Connecticut | 4.5% |
Leading the pack is Washington D.C. with 17.3% of all homes exceeding the $1 million benchmark. This puts the nation’s capital ahead of California (13.6%), Hawaii (13.5%), and New York (7.0%).
The high degree of expensive homes in D.C. is not surprising, since the district is a small, urban jurisdiction, with no real “countryside” where more affordable homes can usually be found.
Changing Cities
But what specific cities are trending upwards? Where are there increasing amounts of homes worth over a million bucks?
The above map from Realtor.com breaks down the cities that have the biggest increases in million dollar homes over the last three years.
Here’s a closer look:
| Rank | City | >$1mm homes (2017) | >$1 mm homes (2014) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Denver, CO | 9.4% | 3.3% | +6.1% |
| #2 | Santa Rosa, CA | 14.1% | 8.1% | +6.0% |
| #3 | Boulder, CO | 14.7% | 9.0% | +5.7% |
| #4 | Truckee, CA | 12.4% | 7.1% | +5.3% |
| #5 | Fredericksburg, TX | 13.6% | 9.8% | +3.8% |
| #6 | Heber, UT | 10.5% | 6.8% | +3.7% |
| #7 | Boston, MA | 9.9% | 6.8% | +3.1% |
| #8 | Seattle, WA | 7.7% | 5.3% | +2.4% |
| #9 | Santa Fe, NM | 11.7% | 9.4% | +2.3% |
| #10 | Charleston, SC | 7.0% | 4.9% | +2.1% |
The most impressive representation on the list comes from Colorado, where Denver and Boulder are #1 and #3 respectively.
That said, these cities are anomalies within Colorado as a whole, which has just 2.9% of all homes worth $1 million or more.
