A lot may be said about home prices in Florida, but when Coldwell Banker decided to compare the state with the rest of the nation, Florida is pretty much in the middle of the pack.
The most affordable homes in Florida are located in Ormond Beach at $201,233, while the most expensive homes can be found in Key West, where an average price is $818,239.
Ormond Beach may not be among the nation’s most affordable housing leaders, where prices range from $133,500 to $147,300, but Key West is far off the list of the nation’s most expensive houses, dominated by eight of California’s markets where homes sold on average as high as $1.8 million in La Jolla. The study is part of Coldwell Banker’s Home Price Comparison Index, which looks at the cost of a 2,200-square foot, four-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath home in 315 markets across the United States as well as Puerto Rico and Canada.
“This year’s study comes at an interesting time in our nation’s history with the impact of the housing correction and mortgage financing serving as critical economic issues in the presidential election,” said Jim Gillespie, president and chief executive of Coldwell Banker Real Estate, in a release. “Looking deep into the survey, half of the markets surveyed showed an average price for this very nice type of home to be less than $300,000, showcasing the affordability of homeownership across our nation.”
Florida has an average price overall of $357,596, behind Colorado ($402,497), New Hampshire ($401,697) and New Mexico ($478,343) among so-called swing states that could help decide the upcoming presidential election.
Dubai in the United Arab Emirates sells a 2,200-square-foot home for $2.45 million, some 33 percent more than La Jolla, according to the survey, while a similar home in Quito, Ecuador, sells for $96,750, well below America’s most affordable market, $133,459 for a home in Sioux City, Iowa.