A Million-Dollar Home Used To Be Considered a Mansion—Not Anymore

A "million-dollar home" used to conjure up images of a grand mansion with marble staircases. But these days, that seven-figure listing might well be a modest bungalow.A new report from the National Association of Realtors® found that 8% of all owner-occupied homes—around 6.9 million homes in total—are now valued at $1 million or more.That's a significant uptick compared to 20 years ago, when just 2% of homes were in the $1 million-or-more price range, and reflects the rapid pace of home price appreciation in recent years.So what happened? Supply falling well short of demand, particularly in urban centers and on the coasts, has driven up prices exponentially.The cumulative rate of overall inflation between 2000 and 2026 was 93.6%, meaning the typical item that cost $1 in 2000 now costs nearly $2. Home prices have risen even faster, surging more than 225% over the past 26 years, according to the Case-Shiller index.That rapid appreciation means that a $1 million home today is roughly equivalent to a $308,000 home that was listed in the year 2000.The trend is nowhere more apparent than in Hawaii, where around 40% of all homes are now valued at $1 million or more.Consider this home in M...