Bang for Your Buck: Where $400,000 Gets You a Mansion, and Where It Gets You a Studio

Housing affordability—the issue we all know, and definitely do not love. In the past couple years, the national median home price hit new highs, settling in around $400,000. Depending on the region and market, this could sound like a lot of money, or like a little. What really demonstrates the affordability of $400,000 is how much space you can get for that price.

A new report from PropertyShark—a real estate data provider—analyzed 100 cities across the U.S. to determine how much space the national median sales price of $400,000 can buy you, providing a glimpse at how the national run-up in prices has affected buyers and sellers in disparate markets.

The most bang for your buck

The Midwest and the South, the two regions well-known for their relative affordability, dominate the top 10 cities where you can get the most bang for your buck at the national median home price of $400,000—the Midwest claiming seven spots, including the top spot, and the South claiming four.

In addition, all 10 cities within the top 10 offer space above 2,500 square feet, generally denoting more homes being offered rather than apartments or condos. In fact, the report even notes that about two-thirds of Detroit’s housing stock is made up of single-family homes. All the cities also have a median sales price below $260,000, the highest being $258,000 in Kansas City and the lowest being $95,000 in Detroit. 

Here are the top 10 cities that offer the largest amount of space for $400,000:

1. Detroit, Michigan (4,918 sq. ft.)
2. Cleveland, Ohio (4,467 sq. ft.)
3. Toledo, Ohio (3,622 sq. ft.)
4. Buffalo, New York (3,201 sq. ft.)
5. Lubbock, Texas (3,088 sq. ft.)
6. Wichita, Kansas (2,954 sq. ft.)
7. Kansas City, Missouri (2,827 sq. ft.)
8. Memphis, Tennessee (2,816 sq. ft.)
9. Fort Wayne, Indiana (2,717 sq. ft.)
10.  Indianapolis, Indiana (2,676 sq. ft.)

The tighter spaces 

California and New York, states known for severe affordability constraints, dominate the 10 cities with the smallest amount of space available for $400,000—California with five cities on the list and New York with three cities, including Manhattan as the smallest on the list with only 267 square feet. 

As stated in the report, that amount of space corresponds to a micro studio apartment.

Additionally, the 10 cities that offer the smallest amount of space for the median home price of $400,000 all fall under 1,000 square feet, denoting higher volumes of apartment living. To even break the 1,000-square-foot mark, you have to look all the way to spot 26 on the list—Riverside, California (1,020 sq. ft.). Plus, all 10 cities have a median sales price over $700,000, the lowest being Honolulu at $715,000 and the highest being Irvine at $1,638,000.

Here are the top 10 cities that offer the smallest amount of space for $400,000:

1. Manhattan, New York (267 sq. ft.)
2. San Francisco, California (393 sq. ft.)
3. Irvine, California (423 sq. ft.)
4. Brooklyn, New York (476 sq. ft.)
5. Boston, Massachusetts (476 sq. ft.)
6. San Jose, California (480 sq. ft.)
7. Honolulu, Hawaii (562 sq. ft.)
8. San Diego, California (600 sq. ft.)
9. Los Angeles, California (602 sq. ft.)
10. Long Beach, New York (615 sq. ft.)