For homebuyers, setting a realistic budget is a smart step early in the process. Once that’s done, narrowing down a neighborhood for your home search gets easier.
A new tool from the Realtor.com® economic research team breaks down what share of homes located in each ZIP code would be attainable based on a buyer’s budget.
To roughly estimate your affordable price range for a home, a common rule of thumb recommends targeting a home that is no more than three to five times your annual income—unless you are bringing significant cash to the table from a prior home sale.
Using that guideline, a family making the median household income of $83,700 could afford a home that’s priced from around $250,000 on the conservative end, to $418,000 on the most aggressive side. The exact budget would depend on a buyer’s down payment, existing debt, and mortgage rates.
Nationally, 28% of existing homes would be affordable to buyers with a budget of $250,000, and 58% would be within reach of buyers who are able to spend $418,000, according to the new Realtor.com analysis.
However, home values vary greatly across the country, and a buyer with a $250,000 budget will find many more options within their price range in Ohio than California, for example.
Even within the same metro area, prices can vary depending on the neighborhood. That’s where the new ZIP code affordability mapping tool can help prospective buyers target their search based on their budget.
To determine how far a specific budget will go in each ZIP code, we’ve analyzed the estimated property values of more than 100 million homes across the nation to see how many of them fall within a range of price points from $100,000 (3% of listings nationally) to $10 million (99.9% of listings).
For example, in New York City, the typical home costs around $800,000. But in the ZIP code covering Battery Park City, just 1% of all homes would be affordable at that price.
Meanwhile, in certain parts of Staten Island and the Bronx, nearly every home could be purchased on a budget of $800,000.
The most exclusive ZIP codes
In every ZIP code with at least 50 identifiable homes for valuation analysis, a $10 million budget should be able to afford at least half of the homes in the area.
The least affordable ZIP code in the nation is 94027 in Atherton, CA, where a $10 million budget could afford just 59% of the homes.
An exclusive bedroom community in Silicon Valley, Atherton is home to NBA star Steph Curry, Google co-founder Eric Schmidt, and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, among other tech luminaries.
The second most expensive ZIP code is 33109 in Miami Beach, FL. That ZIP code is exclusive to Fisher Island, an ultraexclusive enclave where notables such as Oprah Winfrey, Julia Roberts, and Andre Agassi have owned homes.
In Aspen, CO, ZIP code 81612 is the third most exclusive housing market in the nation, where a budget of $10 million can afford just 70% of the available properties.
Known globally as an exclusive ski resort, Aspen is the playground of the ultrarich, and properties there can run into the hundreds of millions.
Other ZIP codes on the most exclusive list include Sagaponack, NY; Newport Coast, CA; and Woody Creek, CO.
The most affordable ZIP codes
Across the nation, our analysis identified only two ZIP codes where there are at least 50 homes, and a homebuying budget of $100,000 is enough to afford every single home in the area.
As one might expect, these are typically areas of severe economic hardship and significant quality-of-life concerns. Vacant and abandoned homes may be common in these areas, driving property values down.
Those ZIP codes are located in Elbert and Squire, both tiny communities in the remote, rugged mountains of southern West Virginia.
Formerly sustained by coal mining, this region has fallen on hard times, and economic opportunities are limited due to the inaccessible terrain and sparse population.
In total, seven of the 10 most affordable ZIP codes in the nation are located in West Virginia, underscoring the state’s relatively cheap housing stock in comparison to the rest of the country.
The other ZIP codes are located in East St. Louis, IL, and Flint, MI, both hardscrabble cities facing significant economic challenges.
Like other cities that appear on this list, East St. Louis has suffered significant population decline in recent decades, leading to a surplus of homes, many of which are left in disrepair.
Although it was once a busy industrial town on the Mississippi River, East St. Louis suffered significant job losses due to globalization as manufacturing jobs moved overseas.
The city’s population of about 18,000 is down more than two-thirds from where it stood in 1980.
Mapping affordability in various cities
Using data from the new Realtor.com analysis, it’s possible to map the share of homes available at various price points in different metro areas around the country.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, one of the nation’s most expensive housing markets, mapping shows the scarcity of homes available for $1 million in San Francisco, San Jose, and Silicon Valley in between.
Meanwhile, in Chicago, $400,000 is enough to buy a fair share of the condos available in the city’s downtown Loop.
It’s also enough to buy a majority of homes in suburbs such as Cicero and Schaumburg. But that budget wouldn’t go far in higher-priced suburbs such as Park Ridge or Evanston.
In Austin, TX, data mapping shows a stark divide in buying opportunities on a $500,000 budget.
It’s enough to be competitive for a condo downtown or a single-family home in northern suburbs such as Round Rock and Georgetown, but it wouldn’t go far in the Hill Country communities west of the city.
In the Cleveland area, affordability patterns are reversed from cities like San Francisco, where homes in the urban core are most expensive.
Instead, $200,000 is enough to buy a majority of homes in the immediate area around Cleveland and Akron, OH, but not enough for most homes in farther outlying areas.
These exurbs may be more expensive because homes there tend to be newer and larger, and buyers in this region may value the quality of life found in smaller communities.
