California homes remain the most expensive

According to Coldwell Banker’s annual Home Listing Report (HLR), California dominates the top 100 priciest markets in the land.

Half of the top 100 are in California. Nine of the top 10 cities are in California, and are clustered around San Francisco and Los Angeles. Yet, the state overall is only the third-most expensive housing marketing in the country.

On average, the price of entry into California markets is daunting: all of the top 25 most expensive markets on the Coldwell Banker list have an average listing price of $1 million or more. Sixteen of those markets are in California.

The only outlier on the top 10 is no. 8 — Orono, Minnesota, part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro.

Newport Beach tops the list, where the average listing price of a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home is $2,291,764.

Jamie Duran, president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage for Orange County and San Diego companies, is very pleased by the mention. She said in the report: “We’re thrilled to see Newport Beach back on top of this year’s most expensive market ranking. Known for its picturesque beaches and exclusive dining, shopping and culture, Newport Beach has all the amenities and vibrant economy to make it home to the world’s luxury lifestyle connoisseurs.”

The average listing price for a home in Newport Beach is seven-and-a-half times the national average and 30 times the cost of a similar home in the country’s most affordable market, Cleveland. An average four-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Cleveland is listed at $74,502, a listing price difference of $2.2 million when compared to country’s most expensive market.

The annual report is the most extensive home price comparison tool currently available in the United States, ranking the average listing price of four-bedroom, two bathroom homes in more than 2,700 markets. The Coldwell Banker HLR analyzes more than 81,400 four-bedroom, two-bathroom home listings.

So, the HLR is more like picking up the average home and moving it from market to market like one of those green plastic Monopoly houses from the board game.

“The beauty of Newport Beach combined with the continued tech sector growth in Silicon Valley is powering California’s dominance of the most expensive communities in our report,” said Budge Huskey, president and chief executive officer of Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC, in a statement.

The top 10 cities, and their average prices, are:

Email Kimberley Sirk.