[machomaster]

There are different things that make house/apartment above normal. One is of course size and age. But other things like location have big influence as well (check apartments in central Manhattan).

Instead of trying to analyze hundreds of different what-makes-house-above-bare-minimum aspects we can simply use the price as a good indicator of the underlying value.

And 1mil house is definitely not bare minimum. It is clearly above average.

[ok_dad]

I'll hand it to you that a $1mm home is definitely valuable, however in my case, living on an island, it's not like I can trade it for anything much less valuable, so it's pretty much non-fungible if you assume I will move from a home I own to another home I own nearby. Sure, if I sell here and move to North Dakota I'll be a wealthy individual there, but I am not going to be doing that. Also, if I sold this and rented, I would have a payment that's 50-65% of what I have in this mortgage, but then even if I have a large equity gain from selling I still have to assume I'll use that money over time to rent, so I'm even again. Homes here are more of an impediment to financial success than in most places. People move away from Hawaii, where they grew up, because it's so unaffordable for normal folks. I am lucky that I am well-employed when I have a job (not right now) and can afford to pay this huge payment in order to secure my children's future housing. They will certainly be well-off with a paid-off home here, but that's rarer these days with a lot more people with new families renting here. I'm not really sure what your point is about the home value in this situation. On the mainland it's a little different because you can move 60 minutes away from most places and find cheaper housing, even if it isn't your favorite place. Here on the islands, you can't just move to a cheaper place, everything is expensive here unless you want to move into a literal shack.

[machomaster]

> I'm not really sure what your point is about the home value in this situation.

Everything started with another account saying "In my country our threshold [for inheritance tax] is significantly lower by the way - it's around a million, so bog standard houses get hit by it."

So my point is that 1mil house is not a "bog standard house", whether we look globally or in the USA-only.

Sure, there are some spots in the world in which the average price of the house is going to be higher. But that's irrelevant. It only means that the location is what making that house exceptional.

I understand your practical considerations/explanations about living in an extremely costly place where everything (housing, food, etc) is expensive. But the decision to stay there is on you. "if I sell here and move to North Dakota I'll be a wealthy individual there, but I am not going to be doing that" - is the crux of the issue.