I'm not talking about super wealthy people, just your average college graduate with a professional degree purchasing a home in their mid 30s.

Prior to the pandemic I would've thought $600k+ was up there, and $1M+ was rich.

Nowadays I'm not quite sure. What does misc think? Ignoring places like SF/NYC/Boston.

Any home where the mortgage payment exceeds 33% of the take home pay of the buyer. So every home on the market within 200 miles of a coast.

I'd say a home worth 1.1 -1.5 M would still be considered expensive

2 million is rich / expensive

350k ++

All of them. Even the cheap one's are expensive especially for what you get. There is so much demand and the bar has been pushed up so much that even the lowest level homes are in demand. People just trying to get in while they can. Even trailers are going to stupid money.

Expensive is a matter of value, not cost.

This is difficulr to quantify.

Whatever makes the rentcels complain the most.

You can get a good detached 3br 2.5bath house for around $500k here

My neighbourhood right now is all $1-1.5m, $2m+ is expensive

In my area the good homes in the late 2010's were $300k-400k. Now they're more like $450k-550k.

I'd say anything $600k+ is expensive, should be someone's 2nd house after upgrading and taking equity from their 1st.

That said... wages barely changed in comparison to that. Good rules of thumb were to just buy a house that's between 3x-5x your income. But median wage is still like $65k or something like that. $195k-$325k house price is the ideal for that income. Difficult to find anything decent and modern these days for that, without living in bumpharkville. Oh yeah... and interest rate is doubled now. LOL.

anything you do not own outright......

Where I live I'd consider a 500K+ home to be expensive. However, I've considered moving to a new city. And if I were to move there, a 500K home would be about what I'm in the market for as a decent deal.


My house is only worth about 235K at the moment. But move my same house to say, NYC, LA, San Fran, or one of your more expensive cities. And my house could easily cost over 2M. Its all relative to the cost of living/salaries where your located. Its also precisely why dudes that brag on their salary being high might not necessarily be doing as well as you think.



I've lived in numerous places in the US and am fairly well traveled. I've considered relocating for 'higher paying' jobs as well. But when it all comes down to it, I've figured out. When it comes to quality of life. As a single income dude can you go buy a home for yourself? If you can't go buy a house. You aint doing as well as you think. Doesn't matter what your salary/the real estate costs are. If I can't move somewhere and afford a home on my income. I can't afford to have a high quality of life in that area.

The sheds they are listing for $300k in the ghettos of south phoenix I'd say are "expensive"

The nice homes that are listed for $1.5m+ in better areas seem like a much, MUCH better value - and I'd say aren't "expensive" when you consider what you're getting.

Personally it would be hard to lock down a $$ amount on what I considered to be "expensive" since the price of homes and pay rate various depending on location. One rule I have always had when pulling a mortgage was that I could cover the monthly payment with one weeks pay.... period.. This has always kept me in the green and home size & price somewhat modest.....

Until this last one....

This is the first home my wife and I purchased together since getting married... her FIRST home to purchase... and she makes 6 figures as well. I did what I could to keep everything within reason but also encouraged her to find a home she would be satisfied with for at least the next 20y while our kids go to school. Now I have a fkn mini mansion that is nice.. and in a great neighborhood... and thanks to Bidenomics has literally doubled in "Value" since purchasing in 2019.