Here's how much a typical starter home costs in every state
- Home prices are increasing, leaving fewer starter homes on the real-estate market.
- While some millennials are bypassing starter homes altogether, others are still looking to buy one.
- We teamed up with Zillow to find out the typical cost of a starter home in every state.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Millennials are waiting longer than ever to buy homes, partly because of rising housing costs.
Currently, the real estate market is a seller's market, according to Zillow. This causes home prices to shoot up, leaving minimal inventory at the middle and low end of the housing market, Spencer Rascoff, Zillow's CEO, previously told Business Insider's Alyson Shontell.
"As a result of limited starter-home inventory," he said, millennials "are renting longer." In the process, they're bypassing the need for a starter home.
But that doesn't mean starter homes are completely unavailable or out of reach — just how much do starter homes really cost in today's market? That depends on what state you're buying in.
We teamed up with Zillow to find the median value of a starter home in every state. Using its most recent data from March 2019, Zillow looked at homes valued in the lower one-third of all homes. They also ranked each state by population size using US Census data, called the "size of state rank."
The most expensive starter homes are in Washington DC, costing a median of $335,700, and the most affordable starter homes are in West Virginia, with a median value of $42,300.
See how much a starter home costs in your state. All median home values are courtesy of Zillow, and all median worker earnings are from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey.
Alabama
Median starter home value: $305,300
Size of state rank: 23
Alaska
Median starter home value: $199,300
Size of state rank: 47
The median home value of all houses in Alaska is $306,100. The median worker in Alaska pulls in $52,060 in annual earnings.
Arizona
Median starter home value: $166,200
Size of state rank: 16
The median home value of all houses in Arizona is $252,700. The median worker in Arizona pulls in $52,060 in annual earnings.
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