12 Cheapest U.S. Cities for Luxury Real Estate

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Related: 12 Most Expensive U.S. Cities for Luxury Real Estate

The luxury housing market in the U.S. just came off a good year as well-to-do people were less affected by the coronavirus pandemic, according to a recent report by MyAffordableLuxury.com, a lifestyle blog focused on the luxury market.

Many wealthy buyers retreated from cities to get away from urban lockdowns, sometimes setting off bidding wars for luxury suburban properties. San Francisco and New York, top luxury markets, were left to deal with sluggish sales and discounted prices at the high end.

The report noted, however, that luxury markets are not equal, even in the country’s most expensive cities. Not only do stark differences exist between New York and San Francisco, differences also become more pronounced when compared with other markets across the country.

Consider that the threshold for a luxury home in Boston — one of the country’s most expensive markets — is $2.8 million, whereas in Lincoln, Nebraska, luxury homes start at $720,000.

To find out what makes a truly luxury property in some of the largest cities in the U.S., MyAffordableLuxury researchers analyzed the top 10% of listings on Redfin and Zillow. Each listing had a price of at least $500,000, which the report said is a widely accepted definition for luxury property.

They then ranked all cities — 51 in total — based on the highest threshold necessary for a home to be labeled locally as luxury property. Markets that fell well below the $500,000 mark were excluded from the ranking.

See the panel for the 12 cities with the least expensive luxury markets in the U.S.

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