Location, Location, Location

Minneapolis and Edina tie for national average home price

Have any of you channel-surfed past that cable TV show that compares what kind of house a given amount of money will buy in several different parts of the country? Coldwell Banker has done a similar experiment, examining the disparity between prices for similar houses around the country. Seems Minneapolis and Edina come closest to the national average of $401,000 at $397,133 and $404,150, respectively, for a "single-family dwelling, 2,200 square feet (approximately), four bedrooms, two and one-half baths, family room (or equivalent), and two-car garage in neighborhoods/zip codes within a market that is typical for corporate middle-management transferees."

If that describes your house, know that you've paid almost three times what you would have in the nation's cheapest market, Killeen, Texas, and a pittance compared to the $1.9 million it would cost you to play house in LaJolla, the costliest market for the third year running.

I realize this is the place where one should insert the obligatory nod of pity for Killeen, a landlocked burg located southwest of Waco, but my thoughts today are with the fine folk of Edina who are probably going to need some assistance getting over the shock of being called "average."