Are cities getting more expensive to live in? Many people seem to think so. But it turns out some cities have already reached a fair price point. While New York City — where the median home value now clocks in at $1.6 million — may feel more expensive than ever as the median rent hovers around $3,200, according to online real estate marketplace Trulia, what we’re actually seeing is a global retreat from the hyper-luxury end of the housing market, which has spiked in the past decade.
A report released Tuesday from the real estate analytics firm CoreLogic shows that in 2011, the highest rate of home price appreciation was in cities with luxury homes — a period dating back to 2006, before the crisis — with only 0.5 percent to 1.3 percent appreciation in Mexico City and Oslo. Now, the highest rate of growth in home prices is in Mexico City (1.8 percent) and Oslo (1.5 percent), where inflation rates are in the teens.
CoreLogic recently also released a report with comparable data from the first quarter of 2018, when the median home value in Geneva was $604,646, making it the most expensive city in Europe. Last year, London took over as the most expensive city in the world, with the median home value amounting to $1.29 million, surpassing Tokyo.
Image via CoreLogic