Bloomberg just released its latest Global Cities Housing Cost Index. To render its city rankings based upon housing costs, Bloomberg looked at four main indicators:
- Average monthly mortgage costs for a 1,000 square foot home downtown
- Average monthly mortgage costs for a similar 1,000 square foot unit in the suburbs
- Average rents for a 3-bedroom apartment in a city center location
- Average rents for a 3-bedroom apartment on the outskirts of that town.
Hong Kong turned out to be the stand-alone bank breaker for loan-assisted buyers. According to Bloomberg, an average mortgage payment for a 1,000 square foot 4-person family unit in Hong Kong’s city center was $8,000/month.
The report indicated that, “Even for highly skilled workers, property ownership is now out of reach in Hong Kong.” The only good news about Hong Kong housing costs was that, “…by mid 2019, recent interest rate hikes and lower stock market prices will result in home prices that are 10-15% lower than current peak readings,” according to Bloomberg intelligence analysts, Patrick Wong and Michael Tam.
San Francisco and New York City came in second and third respectively to Hong Kong’s most expensive first place ranking. Three bedroom units in downtown San Francisco and downtown New York came in at $6,300/month and $5,700/month respectively and $4,200/month and $3,300/month in non-prime San Francisco and New York locations.
Most Expensive Cities
- Hong Kong
- San Francisco
- New York City
- London
- Geneva
- Singapore
- Boston
- Shanghai
- Zurich
- Beijing
Compared to last year’s rankings, Canada’s Toronto and Vancouver had the first and second biggest jumps among the 100 global metros in Bloomberg’s Index and, despite these jumps, both are bargains when matched up against Hong Kong and San Francisco.
