One in Five Homes in the United States Is Valued at Less than $150,000

Homes valued below $150,000 are a critical source of affordable housing in the United States. Data analysis reveals that 22.6 percent of homes—just over one in five—are valued at less than $150,000 nationwide. Mortgage lending for homes in this “small-dollar” price range is on the decline, making homeownership less accessible for lower-income Americans who would seek to buy these homes.

The map below uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) to show the percent of owner-occupied housing units in each county that are valued below $150,000. While these homes are most heavily concentrated across the Midwest and South, counties all across the country have this housing stock.

This map includes single-family homes, duplexes, multiplexes, townhomes, condos, and manufactured homes. New America’s Future of Land and Housing program, in collaboration with Craig J. Richardson Consulting, LLC, developed this resource as part of our work on increasing access to lower-cost homeownership nationwide. Removing barriers to small-dollar homeownership is an essential step in creating a policy environment that fosters homeownership opportunities for low- and moderate-income households.

While conventional wisdom maintains that increasing home prices are to blame for declining rates of small-dollar home purchases, there is another elusive barrier stopping millions of would-be homeowners: banks are increasingly unwilling to write small-dollar mortgages. One-fifth of owner-occupied homes in the United States cost less than $150,000, but due to unintended consequences of the Dodd-Frank Act, which put restrictions on the financial industry to curb predatory lending, and other factors, banks are opting out of writing small-dollar loans. Instead, more than three quarters of small-dollar homes are purchased in cash, often by investors or well-off individuals. This lending gap locks millions of low- and moderate-income families out of homeownership. It also exacerbates the racial homeownership gap as small-dollar homes are a critical source of homeownership for many first-time buyers in Black and Hispanic communities.

Read more of our work on affordable homeownership, especially on the decline in small-dollar mortgage lending here.