If you can't afford to buy your dream house in Southern California, you might want to try Oklahoma, Maine or Montana. A new study by Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corp. compared prices of a 2,200-square-foot house in different areas of the country.

Not surprisingly, the study found that the 10 most expensive housing areas in the country are in California.

Palo Alto led the pack with the average home in the study costing more than a million dollars.

In Manhattan Beach, the average house costs $812,000. The same house in Lubbock, Texas goes for $130,000.

A $856,000 home in Beverly Hills would cost only $129,000 in Billings, Mont., and a two-story home in La Jolla that could be yours for $844,250 goes for $129,600 in Lewiston/Bangor, Maine.

According to the survey, there is a $1,106,000 difference between the most expensive market, Palo Alto, and the most affordable, Minot, N.D., where the average studied dwelling goes for $119,000.

The subject home is defined as 2,200 square feet, four bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, with a family room and a two-car garage in a typical, middle-management transferee neighborhood.

The West was reported has having the highest cumulative average price for the subject home at $347,404, followed by the Northeast at $301,241. The Southeast came in third at $199,643, with the Midwest trailing at $192,997.

Nationally, the average price of all homes surveyed was at $269,241 -- up from last year's $244,600.

The American cities/areas that came closest to the cumulative markets' national average selling price are: Grass Valley in Northern California, at $268,487, and Montgomery County, Pa., at $269,475.

California showed the greatest variance in prices from one area of the state to another, namely from Palo Alto's pricey $1,225,000 to Bakersfield's $201,075.

The least variance goes to Oklahoma, with just $50 separating the most expensive in Tulsa, at $134,275, and the most affordable in Oklahoma City, at $134,225.

-- (news@to.me), August 01, 2001

Answers

200 grand for Bakersfield? That was a joke, right?

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), August 02, 2001.

I think the Bakersfield homes include a small pump jack in the back yard.

-- So (cr@t.es), August 02, 2001.

There are actually some nice homes in Bakersfield, wise guys.

-- Baker (in@the.field), August 03, 2001.