The median home price in the United States is now $405,000, a whopping 26.5% year-over-year jump. It’s all thanks to a white hot real estate market spurred by low inventories, all-cash offers, and rising rents. But how far will $400,000 really go across the country? If you’re looking to move, here are the U.S. cities where you will get the least and most square footage for your money, based on a recent Pont2Homes.com study that sourced real estate data from various listing portals in the country’s 100 most populous cities.
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10th Least: San Diego
How much space $400,000 buys you:599 square feet
The median single family home price in San Diego reached $1 million in April, though experts expect sales and prices to cool slightly since with higher loan interest rates.
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9th Least: Irvine, California
How much space $400,000 buys you: 597 square feet
The median price per square foot for homes in Irvine is $670, so you’re only likely to get a measly 597 square feet with a $400,000 mortgage.
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How much space $400,000 buys you:592 square feet
So many people dream of living in tropical Hawaii that it’s no surprise the housing market is high priced. The median price of a single-family home on Oahu is more than $1.1 million, so your money won’t get you very far.
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7th Least: San Jose, California
How much space $400,000 buys you: 510 square feet
With big tech companies come big prices and demand. San Jose is the most competitive housing market in the country, with a bidding war rate of almost 80%. Not only will you be paying a huge amount, it’ll cost you some stress too.
6th Least: Fremont, California
How much space $400,000 buys you:494 square feet
Just next door to San Jose is Fremont, where you’ll get even less space for your money. At the end of 2021, 87% of homes sold for above asking price in this Bay Area suburb.
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5th Least: Boston
How much space $400,000 buys you: 487 square feet
Real estate prices grew 11% faster than local incomes in March, making Boston one of the most overvalued markets in the country.
4th Least: Brooklyn, New York
How much space $400,000 buys you:456 square feet
Though $400,000 doesn’t get you much in Brooklyn, the market there is still hot compared with Manhattan, where higher interest rates are finally quelling the real estate buy up.
3rd Least: New York (All Boroughs)
How much space $400,000 buys you:449 square feet
Millions of people want to — and do — live in the Big Apple, but they pay a huge price for the privilege whether they rent or own. Unsurprisingly, it’ll cost you about $890 per square foot to buy, so don’t expect much space.
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2nd Least: San Francisco, California
How much space $400,000 buys you: 400 square feet
While the housing market in San Francisco is finally starting to level off, it’s still the second-most-expensive city in the country. The median home price is still just over $1.5 million, with the price per square foot right at $1,000.
Least: Manhattan, New York
How much space $400,000 buys you: 267 square feet
You’ll get the least amount of space for $400,000 in the country in Manhattan. But it’s hard to find a home that small there for obvious reasons, making the borough mostly a neighborhood for the ultra rich and famous. You can expect to pay around $1,500 per square foot.
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10th Most: Lubbock, Texas
How much space $400,000 buys you: 3,175 square feet
Compared with the most expensive cities, buying a house in Lubbock seems like a dream. The median price per square foot is only $126, so you’ll get more than 3,000 square feet of space to spread out in.
9th Most: Tulsa, Oklahoma
How much space $400,000 buys you:3,200 square feet
The median home price in Tulsa was $240,000 this year. While that number has gone up over the pandemic, it’s still low enough to entice buyers from California and Colorado looking for a lower cost of living.
8th Most: Indianapolis
How much space $400,000 buys you: 3,252 square feet
The value of homes in Indianapolis increased 35.2% over the course of the pandemic, but the average home price is still only around $250,000, so you’ll get a lot for your money.
7th Most: Milwaukee
How much space $400,000 buys you: 3,279 square feet
The median price per square foot for a home in the city of Milwaukee is only $122. That means you could theoretically get a spacious 3,279-square-foot home for a $400,000 mortgage.
6th Most: Buffalo, New York
How much space $400,000 buys you: 3,361 square feet
Upstate New York is a whole different beast than New York City, with its sky-high prices. If you can live with piles of lake effect snow in winter, you can get a small mansion of 3,300 square feet in Buffalo.
5th Most: Fort Wayne, Indiana
How much space $400,000 buys you:3,540 square feet
Houses are very affordable in Fort Wayne, so despite prices increasing almost 30% since the start of the pandemic, the average price is just under $200,000. You’d be able to fit a lot of bedrooms — and kids — into a 3,500-square-foot home.
4th Most: Wichita, Kansas
How much space $400,000 buys you: 3,846 square feet
A powerful tornado that tore through Wichita in May has made an already tight housing market even tighter. Luckily, those looking for a new home won’t have to pay an exorbitant amount to get enough square footage.
3rd Most: Toledo, Ohio
How much space $400,000 buys you:4,444 square feet
Toledo is one of only three real estate markets in America’s 100 largest cities to have a median square footage price of less than $100. At $90 per square foot, you can get a huge home of more than 4,400 feet.
2nd Most: Cleveland
How much space $400,000 buys you: 5,128 square feet
As the song goes, Cleveland rocks, and home prices are a big reason why. The median home price was only $115,000 recently. If you have $400,000 to spend, you can easily afford more than 5,000 square feet.
Most: Detroit
How much space $400,000 buys you: 5,882 square feet
Detroit is the least expensive big city for homebuying, and plenty of people have caught on recently. Millennials are relocating to the city, lured by single-family homes with a median price of only $80,000. The median price per square foot is only $68, so you could live like a king with a $400,000 budget.
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