A new study pegs the value of America’s urban land at more than $25 trillion as of 2010. But the differences between cities are stark.

The total value of America’s urban land is astounding, adding up to more than $25 trillion as of 2010—that’s roughly more than double the nation’s total economic output or GDP in 2006, according to a recent study by economists at the University of Illinois and the University of Michigan. Nearly half the total value of America’s urban land, 48 percent of it, is packed into just five superstar metro areas: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, with land in and around the urban center being the most valuable by far.

Read the full article at The Atlantic’s CityLab.

^{Photo credit: Flickr Creative Commons / Shutter Runner}