Amazon has chosen New York City and Arlington, Va., as the locations for its second headquarters out of 20 short-listed cities.

Punditry emanating from the United States characterizes Toronto as an outlier on the short list or overlooks it entirely.

An overview of median list prices among the 19 American contenders for Amazon's second headquarters reveals a wide gulf between New York and every other market, while Toronto is largely matched with Los Angeles as the next most expensive cities.

Amazon is opening a second corporate office in Vancouver, signing a lease for 150,000 square feet in a new, nine-storey office building.