What Does A $300K House Look Like in Amarillo vs. Every Where Else?

What A $300k House Looks Like in Amarillo vs Every Where Else

Let's cut to the chase.

Housing market? Bonkers. We all know that.

So my big question since the housing market went "boom boom" has been what an average house price in Amarillo would get you in one of the bigger cities where the real frenzy is happening.

Today is the day. I'm "finna find out".

The Benchmark

I used Trulia.com for this, just because I like how the site is laid out best. Then I decided to think "regular size family", and searched in Amarillo for a 3-bedroom home with a max price of $300k. That's pretty deluxe for the area, but we'll be generous.

Trulia gives me 185 listings as my result. Not too shabby.

And I think I'll use this listing as the control for this experiment, 3109 S. Van Buren 

So now, let's see what kind of houses I can find that fit the same price range and specs as my temporary new home on Van Buren. I'm using this list of cities with the highest housing prices.

San Francisco

Oops...Might have broken Trulia.

Manhattan, New York

At first, I got six results back for the parameters. When I realized all the listings were actually apartments/condos, I set the filter to "single-family house". The result?

No 3 bedroom houses under $300k in Manhattan. Got it. Moving on.

Portland, Oregon

Same filters for Portland. Oooh! Six results!

That's better than the first two, so let's take a look at what $300k gets me in nice, temperate Portland.

Oh goodness me. I had myself a nice chuckle. If I wasn't well aware of how dire the market actually is, I would think this was a joke.

But it's not. But let's be reasonable and check out the next listing before moving on to the next city.

Let's see what else $300k in Portland can get us

And i'm done with Portland. On to the next one.

Honolulu, Hawaii

Zilch. Nothin'.

Bethesda, Maryland

Zip. Not a thing.

Boston, Massachusetts

Nothing. This is not cool.

Los Angeles, California

Abso-freakin-lutely nothing.

Conclusion

I was going to do the full list of the 10 cities with the highest house prices--but we don't need to do that. I believe I have seen enough.

In conclusion: $300k for a 3 bedroom home in Amarillo, Texas literally does not exist anywhere else in the bigger cities. Let's appreciate our nice, reasonably priced homes while we still can.