5 years ago, only 85 US cities had starter homes that cost at least $1 million. Now there are 233.

• The typical starter home costs at least $1 million in 233 US cities, a Zillow study found.
• Just five years ago, only 85 cities had starter homes that cost at least $1 million.
• It's a telling sign of how pricey homes are, even in areas once considered relatively affordable.

The typical price of a starter home was $1 million or higher in 233 US cities last month, a new report from Zillow found.

To define starter home prices, Zillow looked at estimated home values toward the bottom of the market in each city, between the 5th and 35th percentiles for each area.

The real-estate listings site found that the typical price of starter homes in at least one city in half of all US states reached $1 million or higher.

The typical price for a starter home nationally stood at $192,514 — well under $1 million. However, the Zillow data shows just how expensive homes have become since 2020, including in states like Rhode Island and Minnesota that aren't historically known for ultra-pricey real estate. Five years ago, only 85 cities had typical starter homes costing $1 million and up.

California led Zillow's 2025 list of places with the most expensive starter homes, with 113 cities where the typical one is $1 million or higher. New York, with 32 cities, and New Jersey, with 20, followed.

In fact, eight California cities made the top 15 most expensive cities for starter homes, with the typical price exceeding $3 million. Four cities in Washington, all located in the Seattle metropolitan area, also made the top 15.

Jupiter Island, Florida, where celebrities like Bill Gates and Tiger Woods have owned waterfront mansions, took the top spot overall, with a staggering $5,850,442 typical price for a starter home in March 2025.

Two new states joined the list this year: Rhode Island and Minnesota. New Shoreham, Rhode Island, the main town on Block Island, a popular summer destination, and Minnetonka Beach, Minnesota, a lakeside suburb of Minneapolis, reached the $1 million starter-home milestone.

Relatively expensive homes put many homebuyers in tough spots

Homeownership can feel frustratingly out of reach for anyone, but first-time homebuyers are particularly squeezed.

In 2024, the National Association of Realtors found that the median age of a first-time homebuyer hit an all-time high of 38. At the same time, first-time homebuyers made up only 24% of all transactions, a record low.

The median sales price of a US home in the US has risen by 42.5% in the past five years, according to real-estate site Redfin, from $302,487 in March 2020 to $431,078 in March 2025.

Mortgage rates are also relatively high, which makes borrowing money more difficult. Rising homeowners' insurance rates nationwide and increasingly pricey homeowners' association, or HOA, fees are additional costs that make homebuying even more expensive.

Increasing costs can lead potential buyers, like Virginia resident Lawrence Talej, to delay homebuying plans. Talej was in contract for a $315,000 house in 2019, but pulled out when maintenance issues arose. Four years later, the median price for a home in his suburb of Richmond jumped more than $100,000, according to Zillow, causing him to put his plans on hold.

"We're royally screwed," he told BI at the time.

Some people even feel their six-figure incomes aren't enough to comfortably purchase a home.

Last year, tech worker Madelyn Driver and her husband set out with a $700,000 budget and remote-work flexibility, looking at houses from Colorado to Pennsylvania. They told BI that finding a home that fit their budget and broad location preferences felt impossible.

"We're finding that even in a vast country like the US, housing options that align with our desires for green spaces, a somewhat metropolitan vibe, and cultural vibrancy are surprisingly out of budget," Driver said. In June 2024, Driver said they would keep looking for another year and then re-evaluate their search.

Even for the lucky ones who do manage to buy a home, it's not always smooth sailing.

First-time homebuyer Elsa said she felt pressure to buy a home in 2022, before she was ready. She and her husband purchased a $975,000 home in a Washington, DC, suburb, taking on credit card debt to keep up with the mortgage and other costs that cropped up.

"We definitely didn't anticipate having as many repair expenses. The house we bought is older, so we have been overwhelmed with repairs like multiple water leaks," she told BI.