County affordability

Seventeen of the U.S. counties where a home costs the most years of income

California holds 7 of the 17 spots on this list of U.S. counties where a home costs the most years of median household income — more than any other state. Teton County, WY — home to Jackson Hole — is among the highest in the nation, at about 12 years of median household income. The rest reads like a highlight reel of expensive real estate too: Martha's Vineyard, Marin County, and Maui all appear among the seventeen.

Home price to income is how many years of a household's income it would take to buy the median home — this figure is from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2019–2023 American Community Survey.

Why we don't name a #1

These seventeen counties aren't ranked against each other. Home price to income is a ratio of two Census survey estimates — home value and household income — so it carries the combined uncertainty of both: Teton County, WY's own home-price-to-income ratio carries a margin of error of about ±2.0 years, or 16.3% of its own value — wider than its full lead over every other county in the top five, including Kings County, NY (11.3 years), the next-highest published figure. By the Census Bureau's own prescribed test for comparing two ACS estimates (ACS General Handbook, Chapter 8) — checking whether the gap between two values exceeds the combined margin of error on both — almost none of the adjacent counties on this list clear that bar. We can say with confidence these seventeen counties are among the highest in the nation on this measure; we can't say with confidence which one is highest, because the survey's own uncertainty is wider than the differences between them. Rows with the same figure are listed alphabetically within that group.

This ranking is one slice of the full data. The County List with Demographics carries median income, rent, and home value for all 3,221 U.S. counties in one CSV.

• The County List with Demographics page has a free 100-row sample — download it to see the columns first.
• Get the County List with Demographics ($199) for the complete file.

More county affordability rankings

Every figure fact-checked against the Census Bureau's 2019–2023 American Community Survey.

Highest rent burdenLowest median gross rentLowest rent burdenLow rent burden, pop. 20K–50KLow rent burden, pop. 50K–100KLow rent burden, pop. 100K–250KLow rent burden, pop. 250K–750K

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Methodology & sources

"Home price to income" is median home value (Census Table B25077) divided by median household income (S1901/B19013), from the 2019–2023 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates — expressed as years of income it would take to buy the median home outright. Cite the specific data.census.gov detailed-table page (ACSST5Y2023/ACSDT5Y2023), not census.gov's QuickFacts tool — QuickFacts has since rolled forward to the newer 2020–2024 vintage and will show different numbers for the same county. Figures pulled directly from the U.S. Census Bureau's own ACS 2019–2023 5-Year detailed tables (B19013 household income, B25064 median gross rent, B25077 median home value), each carrying its own published margin of error. Faithfully reproduced from the Bureau's release, not independently re-measured.

Prepared from our data team's 2026-08-07 delivery.

How precise are these figures? Each value is a ratio of two Census survey estimates, so it carries the uncertainty of both. Teton County, WY's figure carries a margin of about ±2.0 years — wider than its lead over the next county on the list. The table is ordered by the published figure; by the Census Bureau's own test for comparing two estimates, almost no adjacent pair here separates beyond its combined margin, so the order reflects the figure, not a demonstrated difference.