Upscale Housing in O.C. Still Less Than Homes in U.K., Japan

In a recent wire service story about executives hunting for homes, a writer in Vancouver, Canada, compared the prices of upscale “executive” homes in suburban Chevy Chase, Md., with those in “Los Angeles’ Orange County.”

Obviously, either the writer needs a geography lesson or Orange County needs a better publicist.

The story said that executive housing in Orange County, which hasn’t belonged to Los Angeles for 102 years, carries a median price tag in the $500,000 range.

That may sound like a lot, but it’s cheap compared to the cost of executive homes in Tokyo and London, which at well over $1 million are among the world’s most expensive. In contrast, executive homes in Pittsburgh and Belfast, Northern Ireland, are among the cheapest at less than $225,000.