Source: Credit Sesame

Economists may still be calling U.S. real estate overpriced, but property in the nation’s biggest cities is still relatively affordable compared with the rest of the world, a chart compiled by credit management system Credit Sesame shows (see chart above). At an average of $1,068 per square foot, Manhattan homes seems cheap compared to Paris, which costs an average of $3,287 per square foot for a residence, according to Credit Sesame’s data. Also more expensive than Manhattan are cities such as Oslo, Luxembourg, London, Hong Kong and Beirut. Living in Houston, Texas is much more affordable than living in Al Kut, Iraq, $54 per square foot compared to $262 per square foot respectively. Miami comes in at $182 per square foot. – Katherine Clarke

A massive new mega mall planned for downtown Miami has local shoppers ready to spend and local politicians seeing dollar signs.

The massive Brickell CitiCentre consisting of more than five towers will rise from the land bordered by Brickell on the East, Southwest 1st Ave. to the west and between Southwest 8th and Southwest 6th St.

The complex will be bigger than the Dolphin Mall’s 1.4 million square feet of retail space, bigger that Sawgrass Mills Mall — in fact about double the size of Sawgrass — at 4 million square feet

“This is the biggest private works project in the U.S. this year, this is the biggest private works project in America,” said Miami City Commissioner Marc Sarnoff. “It’s going to bring Miami into the epicenter of retail shopping and that includes Coral Gables and even Aventura.”

The project will create 1,700 construction jobs every year for the four years it will take to complete construction. When it’s finished there will be 3,800 permanent full time jobs here.

Source nbc.com