Wondering What $300,000 Will Get You?

For homeowners in Topeka, Kan., or South Bend, Ind., where the median home price is around $100,000, all the recent talk of a real estate bubble is a lot of hot air. But it’s all too real for a potential buyer in New York City, where a 425-square-foot studio apartment is going for $300,000, or a South Florida condo shopper (Fort Lauderdale, right) staring at the same thing.

According to the National Association of Realtors, the median home price in the U.S. has increased by 51 percent since 2000 and now tops $200,000 for the first time in history. Prices vary widely from city to city and region to region, of course, due to demand. The median home price in the most of the western U.S., for example, is nearly $313,000, having shot up in the past five years. But in places such as San Francisco and Orange County, Calif., you are looking at $700,000 just to get anything.

Conversely, the Midwest runs approximately $168,000 regionally — up a still-significant 38 percent in the past five years — in terms of median sale price.

Sales are expected to slow and prices are expected to level off over the next year, or even reverse in some areas as long-term mortgage rates climb, according to the Kiplinger Letter, an online business forecasting publication. Homeowners should expect about a 4 percent price increase in 2006, compared with an average gain of 8.5 percent this year. If you’re thinking about downsizing or moving to a different area, or are just curious about how the rest of the country lives, the list below may be of interest to you.

What follows is a list of reasonable properties (heavily discounted fixer-uppers, foreclosures or homes sitting on toxic waste sites have excluded) in 14 metro areas and what you can expect $300,000 to get you. (BR = bedrooms, BA = bathrooms, SF = square feet).

• New York, N.Y. — Ground-floor studio, Upper East Side, 425 SF, $260,000
• Boston, Mass. — 2-BR, 1-BA condominium, 770 SF, $274,000
• Washington, D.C. — 2-BR, 1-BA condo; parking $35,000 extra, $289,000
• Philadelphia, Pa. — 4-BR, 1-BA split-level, 2,372 SF, $299,000
• Dallas, Texas — 4-BR, 3.5-BA, media and game room, 3,465 SF, $299,921
• Minneapolis, Minn. — 3-BR, 1-BA condo, full-wall fireplace, 1,500 SF, $299,900
• Wichita, Kan. — 4 BR, 2-BA waterfront, 3,550 SF — $289,900
• San Francisco, Calif. — Studio, roof deck access, 520 SF, $299,000
• Seattle, Wash. — 1-BR, 1-BA waterfront condo, 958 SF, $300,000
• Phoenix, Ariz. — 4-BR, 3-BA new construction, 1,800 SF, $295,000
• Atlanta, Ga. — 3-BR, 2-BA remodeled, downtown, $299,000
• Charlotte, N.C. — 5-BR, 3-BA, two-storyfoyer, 2,912 SF, $299,000
• Nashville, Tenn. — 4-BR, 2.5-BA, finished basement, 3,620 SF, $289,000
• Chicago, Ill. — 2-BR, 1-BA condo, vintage, 1910 SF, $299,000

Quite the variance for potential mortgage applicants. While some areas are unquestionably pricier than others (Wichita, anyone?), a buyer will often encounter great disparity within a market as well. Here in Florida, you can easily spend $300K for a one-bedroom apartment in parts of Miami or Ft. Lauderdale, while that amount will get you a pretty large place further inland. Even if you are willing to hunt for a bargain, you are still looking at spending more than many parts of the country and will probably need a Florida home loan of significant size.

On the other hand, living here sure beats Kansas.