In September 2026 the median Dubai home registered at $459.41 per square foot. In the same month the median home in the New York metro area was listed at $494 per square foot. That looks like a gap of about seven per cent. It is not a gap at all.
One of those numbers is what a buyer actually paid, recorded by a government register. The other is what a seller was asking. New York publishes no sold price per square foot. Neither does the United States as a whole. So the comparison most people want cannot be made, and the pages that appear to make it are putting a Dubai contract price next to a New York listing price without saying so.
This page gives both numbers, keeps them in separate columns, and labels every figure as sold data or listing data. If you want the carrying cost comparison instead, the tax and fee side is on Dubai vs New York.
The two numbers, kept apart
| September 2026 | Dubai | New York metro | United States |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registered sale price per sq ft (sold) | $459.41 | Not published | Not published |
| Listing price per sq ft (asking) | Not published | $494.00 | $223.00 |
| Median size on the same basis | 758 sq ft registered | 1,461 sq ft listed | 1,825 sq ft listed |
| Median price on the same basis | $326,711 registered | $742,000 asking | $419,250 asking |
| Sample behind the figure | 9,608 registered sales | 38,158 active listings | National listing panel |
Dubai figures come from the Dubai Land Department transaction register. New York and United States figures come from Realtor.com listing data published through FRED. The two kinds of number are never added, subtracted or averaged together on this page.
What New York does not publish
Dubai publishes every registered transaction with its price and its area. That is why a registered price per square foot exists for Dubai at all. The United States has no equivalent national register.
The National Association of Realtors does publish sold prices. For September 2026 it reported a national median existing home price of $417,500, a Northeast regional median of $523,600, and a condominium and co-operative median of $363,700. Those are sold figures and they are the right ones to quote for American prices. None of them is a price per square foot, and none of them is New York City on its own.
So the only monthly New York per square foot number available is an asking number. It is useful. It is just not the same measurement as the Dubai one.
The real difference is size, not rate
Per square foot the two markets are close. Per home they are nowhere near each other.
| Measure, September 2026 | Dubai (sold) | New York metro (asking) |
|---|---|---|
| Median price per square foot | $459.41 | $494.00 |
| Median size | 758 sq ft | 1,461 sq ft |
| Median price | $326,711 | $742,000 |
The New York home is about 1.9 times the size and about 2.3 times the price. The rate per foot is within eight per cent. Almost all of the headline difference between the two markets is floor area, not the price of a foot of it.
Where Dubai sits inside the New York asking rate
A median hides the spread. Here is how the 9,608 Dubai residential unit sales registered in September were distributed, in dollars per square foot.
| Decile of Dubai registered sales | At or below |
|---|---|
| 10 per cent | $283 |
| 20 per cent | $352 |
| 30 per cent | $386 |
| 40 per cent | $423 |
| 50 per cent (median) | $459 |
| 60 per cent | $496 |
| 70 per cent | $542 |
| 80 per cent | $638 |
| 90 per cent | $763 |
Two figures follow from that table. In September 2026, 40.70 per cent of Dubai residential unit sales registered at or above New York's median asking rate of $494 per square foot. And 95.75 per cent registered at or above the United States median asking rate of $223.
Dubai is not a cheap market by the foot. Against the American national rate it is roughly twice as dear. It only looks cheap next to New York because New York is the most expensive housing market in the country.
Off plan and ready are not one number
The Dubai register splits into homes that already exist and homes that do not.
| Dubai, September 2026 | Sales | Median price per sq ft |
|---|---|---|
| Off plan | 6,868 | $474.97 |
| Ready | 2,740 | $387.23 |
| All residential units | 9,608 | $459.41 |
Off plan registered about 23 per cent above ready in September. That premium is the reason the all in Dubai figure looks close to New York. Roughly seven in ten Dubai sales in the month were homes that had not been built.
New York listing data is overwhelmingly existing stock. So if you want the closest comparison available, use the Dubai ready figure of $387.23 against the New York asking figure of $494. That still compares a sold price to an asking price, so treat it as a boundary rather than a measurement. The off plan premium is covered in more detail on off plan versus ready for American buyers.
How to use this if you are buying from the United States
Price per square foot is a sanity check, not a decision. Three things move the answer more than the rate does.
The first is what you are buying. A Dubai studio at $459 a foot and a New York two bedroom at $494 a foot are not the same purchase. Compare the home, not the rate.
The second is the annual cost of holding it. New York charges property tax and Dubai does not, and Dubai charges a service charge that New York buyers routinely underestimate. The numbers are on what Dubai service charges actually cost and Dubai vs New York.
The third is that you remain a United States taxpayer either way. Rental income from a Dubai apartment is reportable. That is set out on reporting Dubai rental income.
If you want the register figures for the whole Dubai market rather than the per foot slice, they are on what Dubai property costs in dollars. The national version of this comparison is on Dubai versus United States home prices.
Method and limits
Dubai figures are computed from the Dubai Land Department open transaction register. The export used here is dated 12 October 2026 and the rows used are those registered between 1 and 30 September 2026.
The Dubai basis is the standard used across this site: group Sales, usage Residential, property type Unit, and a floor of 500 dirhams per square foot. That floor removes rows whose recorded area makes the implied rate impossible, which are not market prices. On this basis September 2026 holds 9,608 sales. Dirhams are converted at the fixed peg of 3.6725 to the dollar and areas are converted at 10.7639 square feet to the square metre.
New York and United States per square foot figures are Realtor.com listing medians published through FRED, series MEDLISPRIPERSQUFEE35620 and MEDLISPRIPERSQUFEEUS, monthly and not seasonally adjusted, for September 2026. The New York series covers the New York, Newark and Jersey City metropolitan statistical area, which is much larger than New York City. Listing size and listing price come from the matching FRED series for the same month.
The sold American figures quoted are National Association of Realtors existing home medians for September 2026, released on 13 October 2026. They are national and regional, not New York City, and they are not per square foot.
Four limits are worth stating plainly. A registered price and an asking price are different measurements and this page never nets one against the other. A median price divided by a median size does not equal a median price per square foot, so the rows in the tables above should be read down, not across. The Dubai register includes off plan sales, which are forward prices for homes that do not exist yet, while the New York listing panel is almost entirely existing homes. And a register month can grow after it is exported, because late registrations are added, so the September count may rise slightly in later exports.
This page is general information. It is not tax, legal or investment advice.
Questions we get asked
Is Dubai cheaper than New York per square foot? On the figures for September 2026, Dubai registered at $459.41 and New York was listed at $494. But one is a sold price and the other is an asking price, so the honest answer is that nobody can say precisely, because New York publishes no sold price per square foot.
Why does Dubai look so much cheaper overall then? Size. The median Dubai home registered in September was 758 square feet. The median New York listing was 1,461 square feet. The rate is similar and the home is half as big.
Which Dubai number should I use against a New York listing? The ready figure of $387.23 per square foot is the closest available comparison, because New York listings are existing homes. It is still a sold price against an asking price.
Is Dubai expensive by American standards? Yes, by the foot. The United States median asking rate in September 2026 was $223 per square foot, and 95.75 per cent of Dubai residential unit sales registered above that.
Where do the numbers come from? The Dubai Land Department transaction register, Realtor.com listing data published through FRED, and the National Association of Realtors. Every figure on this page names which of the three it came from.
If you want this run for a specific building, a specific community or a specific budget, ask us.