Home Prices in Your Area – The Most & Least Affordable Places to Live

Enter your zip code below to see median home prices in your city and neighborhood.

Median home prices by zip code

 

The average cost of a home in the United States

The average price of a house in the US is $374,900. However, this may be a useless number to someone in a very rural or very urban area where prices are on either end of the spectrum. For example, in San Francisco, CA, the average home costs $770,571 whereas in Jackson, MS a home will cost the average buyer just $158,031. This is because homes in more populated areas generally cost more when compared to homes in less densely populated places. There are myriad other factors that can go into the price of a home as well, some of which we dive deeply into throughout this website such as walkability, access to transportation and household income, to name just a few.  

What causes high or low home values?

There are five major areas that cause home values to either rise or sink. In addition, these five factors are not independent of each other, so there could also be a combination of two or more causing havoc on the market.  

  • How well the economy is doing is an indicator of how high or low home values will be. When people have jobs and the economy is robust, house prices tend to be higher. When the economy is in a rut and people feel more financially unstable, house prices trend down.
  • Supply and demand influences the prices of homes. When there is a surplus of homes on the market, as seen in a down economy where people have lost their jobs and need to sell their homes to either find a different location for work or to minimize their living costs, homeowners have no choice but to lower their home prices to attract sellers. When there are more buyers than sellers, house prices skyrocket as people vie for the low inventory on the market.
  • The amount of your mortgage is largely influenced by the mortgage interest rate you can get. The higher the interest rate, the higher your monthly mortgage. When rates are higher, home sellers are forced to lower their prices so that prospective buyers can qualify for their mortgage loans. When interest rates are low, home sellers can ask for more.
  • Location, location, location. More desirable areas will always have a premium on them regardless of what the economy and the country, as a whole, is doing. Amenities like good schools, parks, restaurants, and nearby attractions will raise house prices in different neighborhoods around a city.
  • Government regulations impact housing prices. Laws passed to help offset your mortgage insurance, for example, help encourage more home buyers to enter the market and drive the prices of homes up. Tariffs and other governmental influences on supplies imported from foreign countries needed to build new housing help keep the costs of homes inflated as well.  

 

Which US locations have the most and least affordable homes?

In cities with a population of over 250,000, the most affordable cities tend to be in the midwest and the south, while many of the least affordable cities hug the west coast or are near New York City. The lowest average house prices in the nation are in McAllen, Texas at $112,684 while San Jose, California is the highest at $937,448.

US Cities with the highest home prices (population >250K)

City
Median Home Price
$937,448
$777,591
$770,571
$760,096
$656,224
$596,968
$572,213
$553,231
$545,276
$534,751
$523,100
$507,180
$495,275
$487,793
$481,544
$480,968
$473,443
$452,050
$451,453
$441,560

US Cities with the most affordable home prices (population >250K)

City
Median Home Price
$112,684
$125,423
$132,391
$133,963
$134,537
$138,535
$141,904
$144,226
$144,314
$148,981
$150,890
$151,226
$151,488
$158,031
$158,062
$158,466
$158,546
$159,531
$159,894
$161,070

 

Explore and compare home prices by location

Choose one of the locations below to explore home prices in and around that area. Zoom in on our detailed maps to get block by block data on home values in your area:

 

Home prices by state

Home prices by city

 

Home prices by county

 

Home prices by neighborhood

 

Home prices by zip

Need more home pricing data by location? The easiest way is to find a zip code in the area or choose the city above closest to your location. You'll then be free to browse surrounding municipals.