How Does New York Compare To 100 Largest Cities Regarding Residential Space Purchased For $400K

Editor’s note: To help readers understand this report, we asked the following of Property Shark. Questions in bold, answers in italics:

Please share details about Staten Island specifically, and what this means for renters in the area…

While PropertyShark doesn’t track rental data, based on Staten Island’s median sale price of $680K, a $400K budget would translate to roughly 796 square feet. With that limited amount of space, many renters may decide to stay where they are, remaining in the rental market longer.

The latest PropertyShark study breaks down how much residential space the national median sale price of $400K can potentially buy across the 100 largest U.S. cities, revealing massive geographic disparities in what that budget could get you. 

Within the Northeastern region, the minimum amount of space that could be secured for a $400K budget sits at 267 square feet, almost six times less than what they could get in the Midwest. Moreover, within New York state, Buffalo buyers could get over 12 times more space than those in Manhattan for the same price.

• Buffalo ranks #4 among the country’s largest cities that offer the most space for $400K, standing at 3,201 square feet — the most in any large Northeastern city.

• Manhattan buyers can potentially get the least space for $400K among the country’s largest cities, at just 267 square feet, driven by a price per square foot of $1,500. 

• All the other NYC boroughs fall below 1,000 square feet for $400K, with Brooklyn at 476, Queens at 621, Staten Island at 796 and the Bronx at 918.

• Among the largest U.S. cities, homebuyers in Detroit, MI could secure the most space for $400K at 4,918 square feet, the equivalent of a five-bedroom home.

• A $400K budget could buy more than 2,600 square feet in the 10 least expensive cities, but just 615 square feet or less in the priciest markets. 

This is a mathematical analysis based on each city’s price per square foot, and in some cities, it may not fully reflect the actual available housing stock. 

Explore the full PropertyShark study to see how far $400K stretches across all 100 largest U.S. cities: https://www.propertyshark.com/Real-Estate-Reports/2026/03/03/how-much-space-400k-buys-in-largest-us-cities/. 

Banner Image: For Rent sign. Image Credit – Erik Mclean