How Big a House $200,000 Can Get You in Every State

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Amid surging home prices and historically high borrowing costs, the United States is facing a housing crisis. Nationwide, the typical asking price for a home is nearly $430,000, up 35% since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, according to the latest data from Realtor.com. Meanwhile, the average interest rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage is over 7%, more than double what it was as recently as January 2022.

Market conditions have understandably given way to widespread pessimism. According to Fannie Mae's April 2024 National Housing Survey, nearly 80% of Americans agree that now is a bad time to buy a house. (Here is a look at the 50 U.S. cities with the cheapest rents. )

Still, rising costs have not been enough for most Americans to abandon the prospect of homeownership. The same Fannie Mae survey found that, if they were to move, 68% of respondents would buy rather than rent. And even in the current seller's market, there are many parts of the country where prospective homebuyers on a relatively modest budget can still afford a reasonably sized single-family home.

Using data on median list price per square foot from Realtor.com , 24/7 Wall St. calculated the size of a house you can buy with $200,000 in every state. States were ranked by the approximate square footage of a $200,000 home, as of April 2024, from the smallest to the largest. Supplementary data on overall cost of living by state is from the Bureau of Economic Analysis . All other supplementary housing data is from Realtor.com.

Depending on the state, the approximate size of a typical $200,000 home ranges from 276 square feet (about the size of two parking spaces) to over 1,500 square feet. For context, the median size among all U.S. homes for sale is 1,840 square feet.

The states with the cheapest homes per square foot tend to have a lower than average overall cost of living, and in some of these places, most homes on the market are listed for less than $300,000. Still, even in the states with the most affordable housing markets, homes are less of a bargain than they were even a year ago. In all but a handful of states, a typical $200,000 home is smaller than it was 12 months ago. (Here is a look at the most affordable housing market in each state. )

Why It Matters

Widely seen as a cornerstone of the American dream, homeownership is also generally considered to be a sound investment and a reliable means of building wealth. However, rising home values and borrowing costs have priced large segments of the population out of the market in recent years. The state of the housing market is not only impacting individuals and families, but also the broader economy. Residential investment accounts for as much as 5% of U.S. gross domestic product, and since mid-2020, the volume of new home sales in the U.S. has fallen by 33%.

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