NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - When buyers fork over a cool million for a home they tend to expect quite a bit for that kind of money.

And in most parts of the United States, they get it.

But just as average prices for homes vary widely, so does what a buyer gets for a million bucks.

That will buy a virtual palace in some places but only a comfortable, though scarcely luxurious home, in others.

That's not surprising considering that $93,800 buys the median home in South Bend, Indiana, but it costs $655,300 for that the Anaheim-Santa Ana area of Southern California.

Nationwide, the median home prices hit $183,800 in the second quarter, up 9.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors survey of existing home sales in 126 markets across the country.

The median means that half the homes tracked cost more than that, and half cost less.

It's the oldest real estate story in the world: the three most important considerations are location, location, location.

Click on the gallery to see what you get for around a million dollars in eight different parts of the country.