This shows county median home values divided by county median household income, both for 2023.
For example a score of “5” means the median home price in that county is 5 times the median household income in that county.
Generally, a score under 4 is considered affordable, 4-6 is pushing it, and over 6 is unaffordable for the median income.
There are of course other factors to consider such as property tax, down payment amount, assistance programs, etc. Property tax often varies at the city/township level so is impossible to accurately show.
Median Household Income Data is from US Census Bureau.
Median Home Value from National Association of Realtors, and Zillow/Redfin .
Home Values Data Link with map (missing data pulled from Zillow/Redfin/Realtor)
A few years ago I moved from a Silicon Valley 8-9 county to a Midwest 2-4 county. Something about seeing this map makes me feel good with my decision. I felt morally conflicted living in Silicon Valley where I knew most people at the stores I would shop at were struggling to afford housing. The house I was finally able to afford was about 20% of the starting price of where I lived in SFBA, and about twice the starting price of the market where I bought.
Is there any moral conflict in moving someplace cheap and outbidding all the locals with cash from selling your California house?
Not for me because that’s not what I did.
Important to note this is based on “median home values,” not “housing affordability.”
This map does not take into consideration many directly-related-to-housing costs such as: utilities cost, natural disaster-related costs, insurance rates, property tax rates, etc. It also does not take into consideration other cost-of-living factors such as: transportation costs (how much are you spending on gas every month if you live 50 miles from anything?), necessities costs (e.g. food and other essentials), and opportunity costs (for everything else).
I was fortunate enough to find a completely rebuilt house in Dallas for just over 2X my income.
However, it’s small size (roughly one third of your standard mcmansion) and location in an older neighborhood devoid of a militant HOA doesn’t exactly make it a chick magnet.
I suppose at this point in life, that’s a plus. I’m perfectly comfortable here and don’t need the hassle of any cohabitants or invasive HOA board members testing the DNA of my grass to ensure that it’s a compliant species.
It took me twelve years of renting in a rat infested shithole with no heat to recover from losing the first house that was a mcmansion in a militant HOA.
I think I’m one of the lucky ones.
Probably not a whole lot different than https://xkcd.com/1138/ . Still good to see the data.
Jfc, Brooklyn has really become a new place, innit.
They definitely got the fuckin Seattle area wrong. You can’t get a house on the east side for less than three quarters of a million dollars, and that’s for a 800 sq ft, run down, 1960’s two bedroom. Seattle proper isn’t much better in the worst areas, and is considerably more in the good ones.
So 80% live in counties <6x? That’s less bad than I thought.
And then 45% at <4x seems decent too. Meaning more decent than I thought. Less than 4x should still be higher.
Interesting. So two of the yellow counties in Alabama are home to the states two largest public universities. The third is the fastest growing area in the state and home to the state’s best beaches.
The blue one is lowndes county and was one of two mentioned a while back in that UN poverty report about open sewers, disease, and poor sanitation.
Hey, my home county made one of the lowest lists!
