A four-bedroom, 2,200-square-foot home in Beverly Hills, Calif. or Milan, Italy, would cost about $1.8 million, making them two of the world’s priciest markets, according to a study by Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corp.

The annual Home Price Comparison Index, a survey of 384 housing markets where the Parsippany, N.J.-based firm has offices, tells people what their homes would be worth in various countries or American states. Seven California cities were among the most expensive, along with St. Thomas, Bermuda and Paris.

The survey “serves a very practical purpose,” the president and chief executive of Coldwell Banker, Jim Gillespie, said.

Relocation advisers for companies such as General Electric Co. and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service use such measures to help set cost-of-living adjustments for employees. Coldwell’s study focuses on the type of house that corporate managers, military officers or government employees might choose: a four-bedroom, with two or more baths, a two-car garage and casual space for entertaining.

The survey has its shortcomings: some expensive locations such as London and Tokyo weren’t included because Coldwell Banker doesn’t operate there. Manhattan was counted out because apartments rather than single-family houses dominate its market.

This year, Beverly Hills replaces La Jolla, Calif. as the location where American homebuyers can expect to pay the most for the benchmark four-bedroom house. Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, and Palo Alto rounded out the top five, all coming it at more than $1.6 million.

Minot, N.D., population 35,000, was the most affordable American location. There, Coldwell’s featured house can be had for about $132,000 with 130,000 square feet of land and 100-mile vistas. Bogota was even cheaper, at $57,000 and in Beijing, the house would cost just under $64,000.

“If you’re moving to Minot it’s wonderful news,” Coldwell Banker’s sales manager in Minot, which is pronounced MY-not, Todd Fettig, said.

He also uses the index to caution locals planning a move.

“There’s a number of times when people have been considering moving and said ‘My salary is going to double,'” Mr. Fettig said. “If you’re moving from here to Boston, doubling a salary isn’t going to cut it.”

Outside California, other expensive American locations included Boston; Wellesley, Mass.; Ridgewood, N.J.; Kihei on the island of Maui, Hawaii; Chicago; and Katonah, N.Y., about 50 miles north of Manhattan.

The study also paired up cities where houses can be bought for about the same price. It costs the same to buy in Amsterdam as in Bend, Oregon. Dubai residents spend about the same as people in Portland, Maine. Warsaw roughly equaled Atlanta, and Sydney was in line with Bellevue.