Home Buying

How much living space does $250,000 buy in Boston? Not much

How much does it buy in Cleveland? Fresno, Calif.? Detroit? See where Boston ranks nationally for housing costs at realestate.boston.com.

It's still less expensive to live in Boston than in some cities in California, New York, and Hawaii. David L Ryan/Globe Staff file

By Realestate.boston.com

July 16, 2020

1 minute to read

Boston ranked sixth on the list of the top 10 cities where you can buy the least space, according to a report the Property Shark website released Thursday, following — not surprisingly — metros in California, Hawaii, and New York.

The site analyzed what buyers could get for $250,000 in the 100 most populous US cities. Why that amount? It was the national median home price in 2018, according to the Census Bureau, with a 5.1 percent increase added per the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Home Price Index.

Least space

Manhattan, N.Y. (232 square feet)
San Francisco (269)
Fremont, Calif. (347)
Urban Honolulu (353)
San Jose (372)
Boston (397)
Arlington, Va. (420)
Oakland (444)
Washington, D.C. (477)
Long Beach, Calif. (506)

Most space

Detroit (5,407)
Cleveland (4,667)
Buffalo (4,145)
Toledo (3,662)
Lubbock, Texas (3,458)
Corpus Christi, Texas (3,431)
Memphis (3,324)
Fort Wayne, Ind. (3,248)
Laredo, Texas (2,863)
Lexington, Ky., (2,667)

Subscribe to the Globe’s free real estate newsletter — our weekly digest on buying, selling, and design — at pages.email.bostonglobe.com/AddressSignUp. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @globehomes.