A new Zillow report suggests entry-level homes are quite expensive in some locations:

The Zillow analysis found that the typical “starter home” was worth at least $1 million in 233 cities as of March. That’s a huge jump from five years ago, when just 85 cities had million-dollar starter homes.

This is quite different than the average starter home home price across the country:

Nationally, the typical starter home is still relatively affordable at $192,514, but Zillow’s findings underscore just how dramatically prices have surged in many areas since the pandemic.

The real estate website defined starter homes as those in the lowest third of home values within a region.

The expensive starter homes tend to be in certain regions:

The New York City metro area, which includes parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, led all metros with 48 cities where a typical starter home costs $1 million or more, according to Zillow.

The San Francisco metro had the next-highest count at 43, followed by Los Angeles (34), San Jose, Calif. (16), Miami (8) and Seattle (8). 

Put differently: any homes, including the cheapest ones, are very expensive in the most expensive markets. Starter homes in much of the rest of the country are not as expensive (this does not necessarily mean they are affordable but they are not at the price level of these expensive metro areas).

So if someone wanted to tackle this problem, it seems like it is a matter for these particular regions. They struggle to build affordable housing or even reasonably priced housing. They have particular local politics that make it difficult to construct more residential units. They are attractive places because of jobs and cultural amenities but they do not have the housing to keep up with the demand.