New York: our bagels are expensive, our pizza is expensive, our rent is expensive, our housing market is…not expensive? Yeah, that’s apparently the truth. At least when comparing NY to some of the country’s other housing markets…
The National Association of Realtors recently released its quarterly report, unveiling America’s most expensive housing markets, and the gasp we gusped when we saw that New York wasn’t number one likely rattled all the city’s buildings responsible for making New York’s housing market so notoriously expensive to begin with. But not only did New York not claim the number one spot, it didn’t even make it to the top ten at all.
On one end we’re thinking we may need a recount, on the other we’re thinking we should just accept the results and move on…
According to the report, 83% of metro markets–189 out of 228–increased in price in the first quarter of 2025, and 11% of the 228 recorded double-digit price gains. But out of all 228 markets, ten cities came out on top, accounting for the nation’s highest median sales prices, and all we gotta say is our friends over in California are not going to be happy.
Eight of the top 10 most expensive markets in the U.S. were in California, ranging from housing markets where the median home sales price is $2.02 million, to markets where the median home sales price is $862,600. NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun stated:
Very expensive home prices partly reflect multiple years of home underproduction in those metro markets. Another factor is the low homeownership rates in these areas, implying more unequal wealth distribution. Affordable markets tend to have more adequate supply and higher homeownership rates.
Joining those eight west coast cities are Honolulu, HI, where the median home sales price is $1.16 million, and Naples, FL, where the median home sales price is $865,000.
The good news is housing affordability actually improved in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the close of 2024–though only very slightly. The monthly mortgage payment on a typical existing single-family home with a 20% down payment is now $2,120, down a big $2 from the fourth quarter of 2024 ($2,122) but up 4.1%–or $84–compared to this time last year.
And if you think we’re missing something, we’re not–New York didn’t make it to the top 10. We certainly are surprised by this, especially since a separate study just found that NYers spend over 70% of their income on homeownership, ranking NYC among nation’s least affordable housing markets–but like we said we’re not going to question it!
Guess it does make sense, though, considering 2025’s hottest housing market is actually in this NY town, according to Zillow.