Million-Dollar Homes Than Ever Before: America Has More

In Seattle, Nearly one in 10 U.S. homes, 8.5 percent to be exact, is worth $1 million or more, the highest share of seven-figure-valued dwellings of all time, says a new report from Seattle-based real estate brokerage Redfin.

That figure is up from 7.6 percent a year ago, and more than double the 4 percent share of million dollar and above-priced domiciles logged before the pandemic, Redfin notes.

The total number of U.S. homes worth $1 million or more is at a record high because home prices are at a record high, Redfin adds. “The median sale price nationwide was up 4 percent year-over-year in June. While price growth has eased slightly since the start of 2024, prices have been rising on a year-over-year basis for the last year, pushing many homes over the million-dollar mark.”

Not only that, mortgage rates have pretty much stalled at more than double pandemic-era lows since the start of 2022. That helped to push monthly housing costs to record highs and drive down home sales.

80 Percent of San Francisco Homes are Worth a Million

High-priced California metros are gaining million-dollar homes faster than anywhere else in the U.S., says Redfin. In both San Francisco and San Jose, about 80 percent of homes are worth seven figures, followed by Anaheim, where 58.8 percent hit that golden mean. The median sale price in the Bay Area is roughly $1.5 million, the report says.

The next-largest increases are in San Diego (42.6 percent, up from 36.5 percent) and Los Angeles (39.3 percent, up from 35 percent). Those locations are gaining seven-figure homes at a rapid rate because the median home price in each metro was already circling the $1 million price point. A hop over the million-dollar hurdle was not a major leap, says Redfin’s research.

Actually, the share of homes worth at least $1 million rose year-over-year in all but three of the 50 most populous U.S. metros. It fell in Austin where 10 percent of homes are now worth $1 million or more, down just a smidge from 10.1 percent last year. The percentage of dwellings with seven-digit price tags stayed the same in Indianapolis (2 percent) and Houston (3.6 percent).

Another factor also impacted a couple of the markets. The share of homes worth a million dollars or more is not increasing in Austin and Houston in part because extensive new construction in Texas has pushed up supply, putting a lid on price growth.

Back on the Left Coast, “home prices, insurance and mortgage rates have shot up so much that many people are either priced out of the market or weary of committing to such a high monthly payment,” said Julie Zubiate, a Redfin Premier agent in the Bay Area where the majority of homes go for at least $1 million.

“The people who are buying without hesitating are in tech and work at Google, Apple, Facebook or a similar company,” she added. “Many Bay Area buyers, especially those without tech money, are getting more selective, jumping ship if a small problem comes up in, say, the inspection. They’re spending too much money to rationalize not getting everything on their must-have list.”

Buyers caught a bit of a break recently with declining mortgage rates upping their purchasing power by tens of thousands of dollars. Zubiate said the recent downward trend in mortgage rates is bringing some big bucks home buyers back to the Bay Area market.

There are still a handful of fairly inexpensive major metro areas where virtually no homes are worth $1 million. In Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Kansas City, fewer than 1 percent of homes make it into the million-dollar range.