2025 American Housing Costs: How many years of (untaxed) salary does a home cost in your state? [OC]

    by Hash1237

    9 Comments

    1. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with this information. I don’t know what the median income is or what the median come cost is. And different states have different state taxes, and property taxes, and all sorts of things…

    2. It’s much more useful to show this by county or zip code. Manhattan =/= Upstate NY, Eastern MA =/= Western MA, etc.

      The whole country view in that case isn’t super useful as it’s too much to take in all at once, but you can zoom in on regions of the US so the individual county/zip are discernable.

    3. i get it and the complaints…but wtf is up with Montana…..that one seems a bit wonky

    4. Its just raw Average price of house v untaxed gross wages.

      Should use AGI instead due to different income taxes per state (incld. City/muni).
      Should include taxes on property as different locations have different tax rates for purchase.
      Does this include homes? Town homes? Apartments for sale? Condos? Land? Or just homes…
      If you want to go crazy, show by county rather than by state. There you’ll actually see true affordability as per location rather than state. Last time I checked Boston has higher prop taxes than say… Lubbock TX

    5. themodgepodge on

      Median *listing* price can get a bit wonky. Slow markets can affect what homes are for sale (and which ones are taken down and re-listed many times). Some markets consistently sell at 10-20% above asking, while others are now going for below asking. 

      I know median value of *all* homes has its own challenges, like varying methodology both from commercial sources like Zillow and varying approaches to valuation from counties, but if the chart title says “a median home,” I would argue that’s different from “a median home *listing*.” 

      Also, a perennial recommendation: avoid red-green color scales. A decent chunk of the population cannot adequately distinguish between the two. I know red=bad, green=good is pretty ingrained in us, but something like orange-blue or one of the many perceptually uniform scales available out there now is more broadly accessible. 

    6. balbiza-we-chikha on

      PA is definitely some of the best bang for your buck you can get, even Philly and Pittsburgh are affordable

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