Affluent homebuyers looking for a spacious home on a $1 million budget will find the most space for the price in the Houston metro area, according to a new housing study.

Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands ranked No. 4 in Realtor.com’s analysis of cities that offer the most square feet for a $1 million price tag for 2025.

The report examined September 2025 real estate listing trends to determine the top five metros where a $1-$2 million budget goes the furthest and the top five where it goes the shortest.

The No. 1 U.S. metro where $1 million goes the furthest is Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, Georgia. Six-figure earning homebuyers can nab a 4,530-square-foot home in this metro for $1-$2 million.

In Houston, the same price could net a 4,112-square-foot home, Realtor.com’s data revealed. That’s about 50 percent more than the national average (2,994 square feet) for the same price.

For reference, the median list price of a Houston home in September came out to $314,668, according to Zillow.

There were fewer than 1,600 million-dollar listings on the market in the greater Houston area in September, and 10 percent of the most expensive listings in the metro started at nearly $800,000.

Realtor.com senior economist Anthony Smith said affluent homebuyers get more value for their money by purchasing homes in Southern cities like Houston than they can get in other regions of America.

“Luxury buyers are increasingly seeking value — and that doesn’t always mean a lower price tag, but rather more home for the money,” Smith said. “In markets like Honolulu or the Bay Area, buyers are paying for proximity, views, and prestige — not square footage. By contrast, in inland metros across the South and Midwest, high-end buyers can often find larger, newer homes with land and amenities that would cost two or three times as much in more supply-constrained coastal metros.”

Elsewhere in Texas, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington ranked right behind Houston as the No. 5 U.S. metro where $1 million nets the most square footage of a home. North Texas millionaires can buy a 4,072-square-foot home for this six-figure price.

The top five metros that offer the most square feet for $1 million are:

  • No. 1 – Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, Georgia
  • No. 2 – Denver-Aurora-Centennial, Colorado
  • No. 3 – Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, Minnesota-Wisconsin
  • No. 4 – Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, Texas
  • No. 5 – Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas

Meanwhile, the five U.S. metros that net the least square footage for $1 million are: Urban Honolulu, Hawaii (No. 1); San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California (No. 2); San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, California (No. 3); Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, California (No. 4); and New York-Newark-New Jersey, New York-New Jersey (No. 5).