[tmh88j]

> The number of cities where a typical starter home is worth $1 million or more has nearly tripled since before the pandemic, rising from 80 in February 2020 to a record 242 today.

Doubt. They don't define what constitutes a city and seem to be purposely be hiding the data. There's only a count of the cities per state with no mention their names. I followed link after link and couldn't find them and gave up. Texas supposedly has 7 of these $1m+ starter home cities. Austin is the most expensive metropolitan area, and there are plenty of < $600k homes in centrally located areas. Venture out to the suburbs like Pflugerville, Cedar Park or Buda and you'll have plenty of options with $400k to spend. There are only a handful of small pockets around the city where $1m won't buy you a starter home like Zilker and Tarrytown.

> For buyers navigating today's market, Zillow Home Loans' BuyAbility℠ tool provides a personalized, real-time estimate of the home price and monthly payment that fit within their budget. Home listings on Zillow also include a down payment assistance module to help shoppers identify local programs that may be available to them.

> For those who decide renting is the right call, Zillow Rentals® lists options across every price point and property type — including single-family homes, apartments and individual room listings. Renters can also use CreditClimb to report on-time rent payments to the major credit bureaus, building the credit history that will put them in a stronger position when they're ready to buy.

This is just fear driven advertising. BUY NOW OR YOU'LL NEVER OWN A HOME!!

[mjmas]

Does the US have the same distinction we have here in Australia where there will be a small local government area in the centre of a city named that?

For example, the City of Sydney LGA is only one of 33 LGAs that make up what is normally known as Sydney.

[tmh88j]

> Does the US have the same distinction we have here in Australia where there will be a small local government area in the centre of a city named that?

It varies, but mostly yes. I think they're limiting the definition of a "city" to as small as possible to inflate the prices for a scary headline. Austin is the most expensive metropolitan area in TX. Fire up zillow if you can access it, search for Austin, TX with a $600k limit and it'll automatically put the city boundary on the results. You'll find plenty of listings, over 1900 standalone homes for me as of right now. Including townhomes and condos it's over 2800.

[jeffbee]

They aren't going by the minima, they are taking the 33rd percentiles.

[tmh88j]

It's fear driven advertising with no meaningful information. They don't mention the cities and I wasn't able to find them. The article is chock full of links other zillow articles, their own products and 3rd party advertisers.

[jeffbee]

Ok, but your doubts were factual.

If you wanted to offer a more convincing doubt about the method, I suggest complaining about their treatment of mix shift.

[tmh88j]

>If you wanted to offer a more convincing doubt about the method, I suggest complaining about their treatment of mix shift.

I'm not trying to convince anyone who will agree on a data-driven premise without actually seeing the data. The article states that a record number of cities have $1m+ starter homes, but there's no easily accessible list of those cities. I couldn't find it, where did you see it? I gave up after clicking about 10 different links and only landing on another vague article or advertiser's product.

[tptacek]

The median price of a house in Oak Park, Illinois --- the inner-ring suburb of Chicago in which I live --- is $700,000. This is an M-COL region.

[rascul]

Compared to a low cost of living region, that's a pretty high cost of living.

[hollerith]

Also, property taxes are famously high in Illinois.

[tptacek]

That lowers the market price of houses.

[hollerith]

It certainly does.

[littlexsparkee]

They have products for owners and renters alike, they don't need to nudge you into a particular position.

[tmh88j]

> they don't need to nudge you into a particular position.

That's exactly what they're doing and I even put a snippet from the article in my comment. Here it is again

> For buyers navigating today's market, Zillow Home Loans' BuyAbility℠ tool provides a personalized, real-time estimate of the home price and monthly payment that fit within their budget. Home listings on Zillow also include a down payment assistance module to help shoppers identify local programs that may be available to them.

[kevin_thibedeau]

Austin had a building glut suppressing prices. The rest of the country didn't experience that.

[tmh88j]

I used Austin as an example because it's the most expensive metropolitan area in Texas, which supposedly has 7 of these $1m+ starter home cities. It doesn't hold true there and it's even less true for the larger cities like Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.

Anyway, my point is that it comes across as deceptive by providing ambiguous information with no easily accessible data to reference and loading the article with as many advertising links as possible.

[nine_k]

FTFY: «building glut» → «adequate housing supply».