2009 CB HOUSE PRICE COMPARISON

Imagine a four-bedroom home; with two and half baths and around 2200 sq. ft. of living area.  This is the criteria Coldwell Banker used for its latest survey of homes. Every year Coldwell Banker studies the prices of homes in Canada, the U.S. and Puerto Rico, and a sampling of 56 countries/territories outside of North America where Coldwell Banker Real Estate has a presence. The Coldwell Banker Home Price Comparison Index (HPCI) is a major marketing tool for us, as its findings are published throughout the world in a whole range of magazines trade journals and other studies.  It really focuses the attention on how the same house can have such a varied value attached to it, just by moving cities.  Obviously, if you move a house to an Asian city, where the norm is apartments, the price of the house will be very expensive.  The same house in Latin America will be considerably cheaper because the construction style changes. Frost is not an issue, and a house can be built simply from concrete and rebar.

This particular house used in the study is one that we would call an executive home.  This type of house a middle-management corporate employee would live with their spouse and children, and maybe a maid or another generation of the family.  According to the survey this type of house is quite a bargain here in Canada. But the study’s most interesting conclusion is that there is a price gap of more than two million dollars between the most expensive and most affordable North American markets for that same home.

In the annual comparison of similar homes in 345 North American markets, La Jolla, CA led the list as the most expensive real estate market on the continent with an average home price of $2,125,000 US.  Vancouver, BC placed tenth on the North American most expensive list at $1,174,241 US ($1,262,625 CDN) topping the 35 Canadian markets studied.  Grayling, Michigan was North America’s most affordable market, one of 20 similarly priced communities on the most affordable list.  Canada’s most affordable major market Charlottetown, PEI was narrowly edged out of the North American top ten most affordable markets.  A similarly sized home there costs only $147,560 US ($158,667 CDN).  

Internationally, Singapore, $1.9 million US dollars, was the most expensive market for the same type of home compared with Salinas, Ecuador, $69,375 US dollars, was the most affordable studied international market.

If you are interested in what homes sell for in other regions, a few months ago Google added a real estate feature to its popular map application. Just visit maps.google.com and then in the map area, under the button labeled “More…” check the box labeled Real Estate.  You will now be able to see listings of homes for sale right on the map.  When playing with this feature bores you and you want to know more about how you can own a home like those you see, feel free to contact me.

TABLE 1

The top 10 most expensive and most affordable surveyed North American markets overall in 2009 are:

 TABLE 2

The most expensive and other more affordable markets (in CDN dollars) within selected provinces/territories in Canada are: 

TABLE 3

All surveyed Canadian markets 2009: 

 TABLE 4

All surveyed international markets 2009: