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The Street

Samanda Dorger

20 Cities Where It's Cheaper to Buy a House Than a Condo

United States Point2 Ark. the National Association of Realtors

For first-time home buyers looking to break in to a challenging housing market, condominiums are hot.

The median condo price in February 2023 was $46,500 less than the median single family home price, according to the National Association of Realtors.

That difference in price can mean the difference between qualifying and not qualifying for a mortgage.

Besides the difference in price, some of the advantages of condo living are usually lower insurance, less maintenance and nicer amenities, like a gym and pool. On the downside, there are shared walls and communal spaces, lots of rules and regulations and homeowner association fees -- usually around $200-$300 a month.

But demand for condos may be driving up the prices, while houses could be going down. The median existing single-family home price was $367,500 in February 2023, down 0.7% from February 2022, according to the National Association of Realtors, and the median existing condo price was $321,000 in February, an increase of 2.5% compared to the year before.

But prices and inventory vary depending on where you’re looking.

In 20 large U.S. cities, single family homes are actually cheaper than condos, according to an analysis of housing prices by real estate site Point2homes.com.

Many urban hubs list single-family houses for more than double -- or almost triple -- the median price of condos. In Bellevue, Wash., for example, the median house price is nearly $1 million more—185%— than a condo. In Arlington, Va., house prices were 173% more, and in Honolulu, houses cost about 164% more than a condo, Point2 found.

That’s no surprise, which is why many people turn to condos for more affordable pricing.

But it might be a surprise to find that in Boston, for example, the median house price is about 1% less than the median condo price, according to Point2’s analysis. In other cities, it’s as much as 12% to a whopping 75% less.

To determine where houses are cheaper than condos, or where upsizing to a house from a condo would be easiest, Point2 analyzed the median price for sold condo and house units in the 200 largest cities from realtor associations, local MLS, and various listing portals including Point2, Realtor.com, Redfin (RDFN) and Zillow (Z). Most of the cities are core cities within a larger metro area, (like Boston) as well as 50 that are non-main cities.

For the cities where houses still cost more than condos, Point2 also figured how easy it would be to upsize to a house. They looked at local median household income, then calculated the price-difference-to-income ratio to see how long it would take to save up the difference in cost between a condo and a house. For example, in Providence, R.I., it would take less than a month of the median income to save up the extra $3,000 needed to buy a house instead of a condo.

Based on Point2’s analysis, here are the cities where it’s cheaper to buy a house than a condo, plus the ones where upsizing from a condo would be a breeze.