“Again, not surprising to those of us in the city where a $35MM dollar penthouse and a $2000/month rental can exist not only in the same neighborhood but in the same building!”

Visual Capitalist published a report this week of the 30 most valuable cities in the U.S. in terms of real estate. Perhaps unsurprisingly for New Yorkers who are deeply steeped in the daily awareness of what it takes to own (or even rent) a piece of the apple, our city tops the list with a total value placed at 2.8 Trillion. There are a mere 3 trillionaires on the list. Los Angeles takes 2nd place with $2.3 Trillion in value. San Francisco comes 3rd, and while well known for its competitive sales market, all that heat is generated by only $1.3 Trillion. (only and trillion: 2 words not often seen in the same sentence). The remaining 27 cities are merely in the Billions.

An interesting contrast can be seen when you look at the ranking of these same cities in terms of median value. Here New York falls down the list to #7. Clear evidence of the fact that there are a lot of us, and we are diverse. Again, not surprising to those of us in the city where a $35MM dollar penthouse and a $2000/month rental can exist not only in the same neighborhood but in the same building!

The spread between citywide value and median home value was one of the most interesting points raised for me in reading the article. While New York’s drop from #1 to #7 is significant, let’s think about Chicago: 4th on the list with a total real estate value of $906 Billion, it drops down to #28 for its median home value. For me, these statistics serve as an interesting jumping-off point to contemplate the diversity of what home looks like throughout our nation’s cities.

Click over to Visual Capitalist to see the map and charts, and to make your own comparisons. I’d love to hear your conclusions.