A million-dollar price tag on a home is no longer a signifier of luxurious living. 

In over 200 cities across the US, budding homeowners will have to fork out the sum for a typical starter home, according to new Zillow analysis. 

The real estate marketplace defines a 'starter home' as properties among the lowest third of home values in a given region. 

It found that the typical starter home has surpassed this staggering price threshold in 237 US cities - almost tripling from 84 five years ago. 

Nearly half of the cities are in California, which is notorious for its high housing costs, but exactly half of all states have at least one city where a million-dollar starter home is the norm.

Starter homes in these cities cost more than five times the national average of $196,611, according to Zillow, which is comfortably affordable for a median-income household. 

A housing shortage which worsened over the Covid-19 pandemic has driven up the cost of homes across the US to new heights. 

Starter home values have grown 54.1 percent since 2019, which is even more than the 49.1 percent increase for the typical American home in the same time frame.

This has priced many would-be homebuyers out of the market, and delayed the first home purchase for millions. 

In 2023, the median age of a first-time homebuyer was 35, Zillow found, which is a year older than in 2019. 

California is home to 117 cities where the typical starter home costs more than $1 million, including places such as Santa Monica, Montecito and Carmel Valley. 

This figure has more than doubled since 2019, when it was home to 53.

California is well ahead of New York, which has 31, and New Jersey, which has 21. 

Florida and Massachusetts round out the top five with 11 each. While the Sunshine State was home to four cities with million-dollar starter homes five years ago, Massachusetts did not have any. 

States including Utah, Illinois, Missouri and Kansas, which did not have a single city with million-dollar starter homes in 2019, are now all home to one.

For example, in Utah, it is Alta, a ski town near Salt Lake City, and in Kansas it is Mission Hills, a suburb of Kansas City.

Irvine, California, which has a population of more than 300,000 is the biggest city with $1 million starter homes, Zillow found. 

Among metropolitan areas, the New York City metro, which includes parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, has 48 cities with million-dollar starter homes - the highest in the country. 

The San Francisco metro has 44, Los Angeles has 35, San Jose has 15, and Miami and Seattle each have eight. 

'Home buyers are battling affordability and availability today. So much so that $1 million is the norm for a starter home in hundreds of cities,' said Orphe Divounguy, senior economist at Zillow. 

'However, it's looking more and more like there will be some good news ahead for first-time buyers. 

'More homes are for sale, price cuts are on the rise, and buyers have a few more days to weigh their options as homes sit on the market.'

It comes as experts warn that house prices are set to see a dramatic fall in pandemic-era 'boomtowns' in the South. 

Already, recent reports have shown parts of Florida and Texas are seeing elevated costs begin to come down.