The 26 U.S. Counties Where Homeownership Is Now Unaffordable: Report
(NEXSTAR) – Over the past few years, many people across the country have watched home prices in their humble hometowns quickly spiral out of reach.
A report by MoneyGeek identified 26 US counties that have made the change since 2019. To compile its list, MoneyGeek said it looked at counties with populations over 250,000 that are experiencing population growth. From there, analysts looked at how home prices have increased since 2019 and compared the cost of owning a home to the area’s median income.
Counties like San Francisco County and New York County aren’t on the list because they’ve been considered “unaffordable” for more than a few years, a MoneyGeek analyst told Nexstar. The same goes for King County (home to Seattle) in Washington, Los Angeles County, and Santa Clara County (in the heart of Silicon Valley).
In three of those counties — New York, San Francisco and Santa Clara — the median home price exceeds $1.1 million.
On the list of 26 counties where property costs have skyrocketed more recently, you’ll notice cheaper median home prices — but those places also have lower median incomes. In Davis County, Utah, for example, the median income is $36,597. The median home price, meanwhile, is $428,765. MoneyGeek says home prices have risen 34% over the past three years in this county north of Salt Lake City.
The counties where homeownership has become unaffordable since 2019, according to MoneyGeek, are:
- Ada County, Idaho
- Collier County, Idaho
- Travis County, Texas
- Williamson County, Texas
- Washoe County, Nevada
- Douglas County, Colorado
- Davis County, Utah
- Larimer County, Colorado
- Salt Lake County, Utah
- Kitsap County, Washington
- St. Johns County, Florida
- Sacramento County, California
- Spokane County, Washington
- Snohomish County, Washington
- Merced County, California
- Clark County, Nevada
- Pierce County, Washington
- Sarasota County, Florida
- Charleston County, South Carolina
- Thurston County, Washington
- Jefferson County, Colorado
- Marion County, Oregon
- Collin County, Texas
- Maricopa County, Arizona
- Buncombe County, North Carolina
- Clark County, Washington
In many of these counties, home prices have risen much faster than incomes, making home ownership increasingly out of reach for the average resident. See the median income and median home price for each county in Full report from MoneyGeek.