Special Report

What a Typical Home Costs in Every State

Due in large part to the subprime mortgage crisis that lasted from 2007 to 2010, the U.S. housing market has undergone unprecedented change in the last 10 years. As the housing bubble burst, the national median home sale price dipped by more than 31%, from $219,000 in 2006 to $150,500 in 2011. Despite relatively rapid improvements since, housing prices across the U.S. remain slightly lower than they were a decade ago.

Every state’s housing market is unique. Differences in demand, the age and condition of available homes, and the quality of schools and other geographic and social attractions in the market can lead regional home prices to vary dramatically from one state to the next.

24/7 Wall St. reviewed 2016 median sales prices to identify the cost of a home in every state. According to data provided by ATTOM Data Solutions, a real estate data analytics company, Hawaii leads all states with a median sale price of $485,000, while West Virginia is at the bottom with a median home sale price of $122,550.

Click here to see the what a typical home costs in every state.

The recovery from the subprime mortgage crisis has not been even across the country. While home prices in some states are still much lower than their pre-recession levels, home prices in other states are well above pre-recession levels. In many of these places, the robust housing market recovery can be partially attributed to increasing demand.

Many of the states with the greatest housing price recoveries — including Colorado, North Dakota, and Texas — have also had the greatest population booms. In each of those states, the population grew at more than double the 10-year national growth rate of 7.9%, and median home sale prices have increased by more than one-third since 2006.

Housing prices in a given state are driven partly by what people can afford. Not surprisingly, incomes are relatively high in states with more expensive homes, and they are lower in less expensive real estate markets. The typical American household earns $55,775 a year. Incomes are below the national median in each of the 10 states with the lowest home sale prices, and incomes exceed the national median income in nine of the 10 states with the highest home sale prices.

While incomes tend to be higher in more expensive housing markets, the relation is not perfectly linear. While areas with higher real estate values also tend to be home to higher earners, median incomes in these areas comprise a considerably smaller share of median real estate prices. For example, though the median household income in Hawaii is the second highest of any state, it only comprises about 15% of the median home sale price. Meanwhile, though West Virginia is one of the poorest states, a typical household earns about 34% of the statewide median housing price.

Irrespective of income, home prices in a given state affect how likely residents are to buy a home. For example, in West Virginia, the state with the lowest median housing price in the country, 72.3% of homes are owner occupied — the highest homeownership rate of any state. On a broader scale, 19 of the 20 states with the lowest median home sale prices have a higher homeownership rate than is typical nationwide.

Lower real estate values not only affect homeownership rates, but also how people pay for their homes. Of the 10 states with the lowest median home sale price, only one has a higher share of homeowners with a mortgage than the comparable 63.3% national rate. Similarly, all 10 of the states with the highest home value have a larger than typical share of homeowners with a mortgage.

To determine how much it costs to buy a home in each state, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed median home sale prices from ATTOM Data Solutions, a real estate data analytics company. No data was available for South Dakota. Historic sales price data for each year since 2006 were also provided by ATTOM. We also reviewed state population and population change figures from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2015 American Community Survey. Homeownership rates, mortgage loan rates, and incomes are also from the ACS.

This what a typical home costs in every state.

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