In San Mateo County, California, the median home value reaches $1,494,500, while residents of Todd County, South Dakota pay a median of just $45,200. That is a 33-to-one spread across US counties, and it shapes how millions of households build wealth, choose where to live, and bear the cost of shelter. The national median sits at $172,300, but that single number conceals enormous local variation.
The five counties with the highest median owner-occupied home values are concentrated in markets where land costs, coastal access, or economic density push prices far above national norms. Each dollar of home value also represents local equity, meaning families in these counties accumulate housing wealth at very different rates from those elsewhere.
At the other end of the spectrum, counties with the lowest median home values offer entry points for first-time buyers that have largely disappeared in coastal metros. Low home values can reflect lower incomes, sparse population, or limited local economies, but for buyers with the flexibility to relocate, these markets remain accessible.
San Mateo County, California posts the highest median gross rent in the country at $2,893 per month, against a median household income of $156,000. High rents do not automatically imply high housing cost burden if incomes keep pace, but in many of these counties the gap between wages and rent remains a source of persistent financial pressure.
The counties with the lowest rents tend to be rural, low-income, or both. Renters in these markets pay less in absolute terms, but if incomes are also depressed, the relief is smaller than the nominal figure suggests. The national median gross rent stands at $848 per month.
Housing cost burden measures the share of households spending 30 percent or more of income on housing. In Bronx County, New York, 52.2 percent of households carry that burden, despite a median household income of $49,036. When more than half of residents are cost-burdened, a single unexpected expense can destabilize housing for a large share of the community.
Across 3,222 US counties, the national median housing cost burden is 23.0 percent. The counties below that threshold show what affordability looks like in practice: a combination of lower home prices, higher incomes, or both. In Hooker County, Nebraska, only 3.8 percent of households are cost-burdened, with a median household income of $45,854.
Housing affordability is not a single number. It emerges from the interaction of home values, rents, local incomes, and the share of households stretched thin by housing costs. Counties at the extremes highlight how far the US housing market diverges from one community to the next. Tracking these measures at the county level is the first step toward understanding where the pressure is highest and where relief might be found.
Data source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year Estimates