Agree!Location, location, location.
$1.5M won't buy a cot space in the hallway of some buildings in NYC. You could buy a huge amount of land with a nice house and out buildings in some parts of some states with it though.
And, actually, the idiots that bought the house ( 4 months ago) next door to the one we used to live in effectively paid $380K for < 1/10 acre of land. Bought the place for $780K. It had just been (unnecessarily) rebuilt (into the ugliest POS with industrial metal siding). Prior owners bought it for $465K (about $100K over what would be considered 'market') and after spending about $300K the town valued it at $475K. I asked a contractor friend what it would cost to build that fugly thing on a vacant lot including full foundation. He said "about $400K". So the < 1/10 acre must have cost the new owners $380K.
But here in Israel the real estate ALL OVER is insane! We have only 2 options: expensive or extremely expensive !