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

By the BestNeighborhood data science team. Last updated September 25, 2026.

Enter a city or zip code to see home prices and the most affordable neighborhoods for any city, zip code, or neighborhood in the US:

Home Prices in the US

The median US home is worth $332,700, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) 2020–2024 5-year estimates. Among the 91 US cities with at least 250,000 residents, the median ranges from $83,900 in Detroit, MI to $1,394,500 in San Francisco, CA.

A home price means the most when set against local pay. The median US home is worth 4.1 times the median household’s yearly income. In Los Angeles, CA, the median home is worth 11.2 times the local median income, the highest ratio of any big city. In Detroit, MI, it is worth 2.1 times, the lowest.

Most and Least Expensive Big Cities for Homes

These lists rank the 91 US cities with at least 250,000 residents by median home value. Each link opens that city’s home price page, which maps home values and ranks its most affordable neighborhoods.

10 most expensive big cities

  1. San Francisco, CA: $1,394,500
  2. San Jose, CA: $1,233,200
  3. Irvine, CA: $1,191,500
  4. Seattle, WA: $938,600
  5. Oakland, CA: $929,900
  6. Los Angeles, CA: $921,200
  7. San Diego, CA: $906,700
  8. Honolulu, HI: $843,400
  9. Anaheim, CA: $831,200
  10. Long Beach, CA: $806,600

10 least expensive big cities

  1. Detroit, MI: $83,900
  2. Cleveland, OH: $102,000
  3. Toledo, OH: $114,500
  4. Buffalo, NY: $164,200
  5. Memphis, TN: $169,000
  6. Milwaukee, WI: $184,000
  7. El Paso, TX: $184,500
  8. Fort Wayne, IN: $188,900
  9. Wichita, KS: $190,800
  10. Laredo, TX: $193,500

Coastal California holds eight of the 10 most expensive spots, joined by Seattle and Honolulu. Seven of the 10 least expensive are in the Midwest and upstate New York, led by Detroit and Cleveland.

Years of income to buy the median home

The chart divides each city’s median home value by its median household income. In Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York, the median home is worth close to 10 years of the median income or more. In Indianapolis and Oklahoma City, it is worth less than 3.5 years.

Median home value divided by median household income, 20 most populous US cities, with the national figure in gray. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020–2024 5-year estimates, tables B25077 and B19013.

What the Median Home Value Measures

The survey asks homeowners how much their home would sell for today. The median home value is the middle of those answers. It covers owner-occupied homes of every kind, including houses, condos, and mobile homes. Rented homes are left out.

An owner’s estimate differs from a sale price. It covers every owned home, including homes that have not changed hands in decades. So it describes the whole housing stock rather than the homes listed for sale this month.

The 5-year estimate pools answers from 2020 through 2024 and adjusts them to 2024 dollars for general inflation. Home prices rose faster than general inflation in 2021 and 2022. In markets where prices climbed quickly, the pooled median can run below what comparable homes list for today.

The ratio of home value to income is a simple yardstick for how far local pay stretches toward a home. It leaves out mortgage rates, down payments, property taxes, and insurance. The cost of living index covers housing along with the rest of a household budget. The rent prices and household income pages cover the other side of the comparison.

Where These Numbers Come From

Every figure on this page comes directly from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 2020–2024 5-year estimates: table B25077 for home values and table B19013 for household income. It is the most recent release available as of September 2026. BestNeighborhood updates this page when the Census Bureau publishes each new release.

The survey reaches about 3.5 million addresses a year. Pooling five years of answers gives enough of them to report on small areas, down to single neighborhoods.

The city figures above cover each city’s legal limits as the Census Bureau draws them. For several of the largest cities, the linked city page describes the whole metro area, so its headline figure differs from the one above.

Every survey estimate has a margin of error. For cities this large, the margin is small next to the gaps between cities. For a single neighborhood the margin is wider, so treat small differences between neighborhoods as ties.

Home Prices by State

Sources

  1. U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024 5-Year Estimates, Table B25077: Median Value (Dollars). data.census.gov
  2. U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024 5-Year Estimates, Table B19013: Median Household Income in the Past 12 Months. data.census.gov
  3. U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey: About the ACS. census.gov

Compiled by the BestNeighborhood data science team from U.S. Census Bureau data. The city figures are the Census Bureau’s published values, with no adjustment. The home value to income ratio divides one published value by the other.