Real Estate

The US cities where million-dollar homes are surging

Barbara Eldredge
WATCH LIVE
Homes in Denver, Colorado were selling for a median price of $560,000 in February 2023.
Walter Bibikow | Getty Images

The proportion of U.S. homes listed at or above $1 million is steadily growing. Between 2014 and 2017, seven-figure-plus abodes increased from 3.2 percent of U.S. listings to 4.3 percent. While that number might not sound enormous, the increase has had an outsized impact on certain urban areas. Realtor.com ranked more than 900 metro areas by their rate of increase in million-dollar listings over the last three years, excluding already-pricey towns like Aspen and San Francisco.

As it turns out, Colorado is home to two of the top-three towns where the proportion of seven-figure listings has grown the most. Denver, Colorado, which has a booming tech scene and burgeoning pot industry, leads the list with a 6.1 percent increase in its proportion of million-dollar homes. Just three years ago, Denver was a solid middle-class market. But by the first quarter of 2017, nearly 1 in 10 Denver homes hit the $1 million mark.

Shopping streets in Boston, MA.
Peter Unger | Getty Images

Close on Denver's heels is Santa Rosa, California. Just an hour north of San Francisco, the town is fast becoming a new kind of bedroom community for its neighbor to the south. "We have a lot of people who work remotely, or they go to the office twice a week," said real estate agent Kimberly Sethavanish from Kimberly James Real Estate. "They'd rather live here and have a little bit more land than [buy] a 800-square-foot house in [San Francisco]."

Third place goes to Boulder, Colorado, which has also been experiencing a tech boom and shortage in affordable housing. Other cities on the list include Truckee, California; Fredericksburg, Texas; Heber, Utah; Boston, Massachusetts; Seattle, Washington; Santa Fe New Mexico; and Charleston, South Carolina. Find the full report here.

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Charleston, South Carolina
Stephen Saks | Lonely Planet Images | Getty Images