How Cool Is This Chart?

How far will a million bucks go in NYC? $1 million will likely net more space in NYC versus San Francisco and Boston. By Business Insider According to Knight Frank data cited by CNBC’s Robert Frank, a million dollars goes a lot further in Cape Town than it would in Monaco. But what about in the U.S.? […]

How far will a million bucks go in NYC?

$1 million will likely net more space in NYC versus San Francisco and Boston.

By Business Insider

According to Knight Frank data cited by CNBC’s Robert Frank, a million dollars goes a lot further in Cape Town than it would in Monaco.

But what about in the U.S.?

We looked at housing list price data from real estate brokerage Movoto.com and real estate marketplace Zillow.com. The diagram below shows the number of square feet of housing that you can buy for $1,000,000, based on the median price per square foot in each city:

city-real-estate-chart-corrected

With a median list price of $666 per square foot, San Francisco’s real estate boom limits a million dollars to buying about 1,500 square feet. On the other end of the spectrum, the median list price in beleaguered Detroit is just $12 per square foot — 55 times cheaper than in San Francisco.

Considering all five boroughs, the median price per square foot in New York City is $424. Looking just at Manhattan however, that price jumps to an astronomical $1,538 per square foot, leading to $1,000,000 buying just 650 square feet.