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Recent articles by Liz Pulliam Weston: • Retire like royalty in a low-cost paradise, 5/11/2006 • Bankruptcy filings soaring again, 5/10/2006 • The truth about credit card debt, 5/7/2006 More... |
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A million dollars doesn't buy what it used to. Here are the states and communities where you'll find the most $1 million homes (and where $1 million might just buy a 'fixer.') By Liz Pulliam Weston A million-dollar home, once upon a time, connoted luxury, spaciousness, grandeur. In many areas of the country, that's still true. In a growing number of others, though, a million bucks won't buy you anything like a mansion. For example, right now $1 million might get you:
Fifteen states accounted for 90% of those million-dollar sales, DataQuick found, and one -- California -- posted nearly half. (Florida came in second with 13%, while New York accounted for 6% of the whole.)
In fact, million-dollar homes are now the norm in many California communities. The median home sale price in Laguna Beach, Calif., and Santa Barbara, Calif., among many others, is now north of $1 million, while virtually all the houses sold in Ross, Calif. (Marin County), and Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. (San Diego County), last year sold for a million or more, DataQuick said. Related news and commentary on MSN Money
What does your $60K a year get you? What does it take to afford a house in this stratosphere? Well, assuming you can scrape up a 20% down payment and opt for a 30-year fixed mortgage at 6.5%, the monthly mortgage on a $1 million home would be around $5,000 a month. So even without considering all the other carrying costs -- property taxes, insurance, maintenance, repairs -- you're looking at an outlay of $60,000 a year, or about a third more than the median income in the U.S. And what does your money get you, on average? Well, it's not always a cracker box, but it may not exactly sprawl, either:
'A bit of a fixer-upper' Even in areas where you get more for your money, homebuyers often have to confront the shock of what $1 million actually buys compared to their ideal of a million-dollar home. Dan and Amy Plakans were pretty disappointed by most of what sells for $1 million in and around their city of Beverly, Mass. "There are a lot of cookie-cutter McMansions that didn't have big rooms or high ceilings," Amy Plakans said. "They felt like just regular, three- or four-bedroom houses." The Plakans -- he's an executive at a payroll company, she's a stay-at-home mom to their infant son -- finally found a somewhat older home on a large lot with five bedrooms in about 4,000 square feet. "It's has some grand features, like a marble foyer and big rooms with high ceilings," Amy Plakans said. The couple paid just under $1 million for the 20-year-old home. "It's a little bit dated," Plakans said. Yup, at $1 million, it's "a bit of a fixer-upper." Liz Pulliam Weston's column appears every Monday and Thursday, exclusively on MSN Money. She also answers reader questions in the Your Money message board. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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