Median Sale Prices by Region : Most and Least Expensive Cities
January 19,
2018 by Jane Chero in General 
The Housing Industry continues its upward momentum with median prices among both existing and new homes catapulting by over 40 percent since 2011. This is the second factoid in a series of four factoids detailing the steady rise of home prices paired alongside housing inventories and median incomes unable to keep the same pace.
As would be expected, regional variation in home prices are significant. At a median home price of $357,443, the West has the highest existing home sale prices. A lack of existing home inventory in the West is most likely causing prices to increase at such a high rate – up 22.5 percent from 2014 to 2017Q2. The Northeast increased by 7.4 percent during the same time period, while existing home prices in the Midwest and South also showed great gains – growing 17.2 and 20.8 percent.
For new homes, the median price in Northeast has skyrocketed up to $497,350 – a jump of 23.5 percent in 3.5 years. New home prices in the West actually declined by (-2.6) percent since 2014, while the Midwest increased 5.5 percent and the South by 8.6 percent.
Metropolitan cities, especially in California, are showing jaw-dropping price increases. The top 3 most expensive cities in 2017 Q2 were California cities with San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA topping out at $1,183,400.
On the flip side are the 10 metropolitan cities with the lowest median prices of existing homes this year. Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA tops the list at a median price $87,000. A couple of these least expensive cities actually made big increases over last year – Decatur, IL is up 12.3 percent while Rockford, IL is up 12.4 percent.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Median Sales Price of Houses by Region, National Association of Realtors (NAR) *based on housing prices through 2017 Q2