California is home to nine of the ten most expensive cities in which to buy a property in the United States, a new report shows.
According to the Coldwell Banker report, Los Altos is the most expensive property market in the United States, with the average four-bedroom, two-bathroom home in the Silicon Valley area costing US$1,963,100.
The most expensive property market in the country outside of California is Wellesley, Massachusetts (in tenth place) where the average list price of a dwelling is US$1,090,089, while Mercer Island, Washington (12th most expensive market with average prices of US$1,013,446) and Stevensville, Maryland (14th – US$$1,009,530) were the next most expensive markets outside of the Golden State.
At the other end of the market, Cleveland Ohio is America’s most affordable property market, with the average list price of a property being US$64,993. This is around 35 times less than the average price of a property in Los Altos. Riverdale, Georgia (US$68,207) and Park Forest Illinois were found to be the next two most affordable markets,
Coldwell Banker stated that the national average property price according to their report is US$295,317.
“Both the most expensive and most affordable markets in this year’s Home Listing Report have become real estate hot spots,” said Budge Huskey, president and chief executive officer of Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. “Los Altos is in the heart of Silicon Valley, where seven of the top most expensive markets are located. And Cleveland has been making headlines for its surge in home sales.”
No matter where you are planning on moving to in the US, one way to ensure you get the best value possible when it comes to buying a house is to get your currency exchange organised beforehand, making sure you take advantage of the best possible rate.
While some would-be immigrants view the exchange market as little more than a lottery, and are happy to exchange their money when they have it regardless of the rate they receive, wiser emigrants plan the exchange well in advance by engaging the services of a specialist foreign exchange firm like Halo Financial.
When exchanging large lump sums for emigration purposes, small change in the market can have a significant impact on the amount of money you could be potentially starting your new life with.
For example, imagine you sold your UK property earlier this year and decided to exchange, say, £150,000 for US Dollars. If you had carried out this exchange on Tuesday then you would have received just US$237,900. However, had you been organised and decided to exchange back in mid August (19th August was the highest point in the past three months), then you would have received a far more wallet friendly US$250,950 – a potential gain of just over US$13,000 towards a new property.
To find out how you can make sure you can get the best exchange rate possible, and take advantage of positive fluctuations in the markets, visit www.halofinancial.com
Article published 14th November 2014