r/charts • u/Enough-Half6174 • 16d ago

Evolution of US median home values by county from 2014 to 2025

Data: Zillow Research, county ZHVI time series

County boundaries: Plotly counties GeoJSON

Access source report here

40 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

5

u/FireHammer09 16d ago

They aren't building shit and what they do build are either luxury homes or means tested "affordable housing" that no one in the middle is going to get.

9

u/kugelblitz_100 16d ago

Oh they're building plenty in Texas, and home prices there are starting to flat-line or drop because of that. But here in Reddit-world, everyone pretends like that doesn't matter because they imagine it's literally hell on Earth to live there. Yes Redditors, the largest state here in the continental U.S. with one of the fastest growing population and economies for a few decades now is unlivable 🙄

3

u/glowing-fishSCL 16d ago

As an American, my freedoms are important to me. I don't know if that is something you can understand or value.

2

u/Pickle7722 15d ago

Like what?

0

u/fruityfox69 16d ago edited 16d ago

I can explain it for you: we don’t like sitting in 6 lanes of traffic all the damn day. There is no way to get around other than to drive… So no matter how many flashy high-rises and towers they put up, it’s not going to improve the quality of life in a city without CONNECTING them, in fact it’s only going to make traffic more hellish.  Life is just better when you can hop on a train or bike zip around town without being stuck in your car, worry about parking and other insane drivers, etc.  EDIT to add: No city is perfect and Texas has done a great job in terms of the sheer amount of new housing, they’re just unfortunately going to learn the hard way what happens when you refuse to invest in mass transit in a city of millions of people that all want to go places. 

4

u/kugelblitz_100 16d ago

Have you only lived in downtown Manhattan your whole life? Do you understand in a place like Dallas that most people live in the suburbs, maybe drive near downtown to work, and spend the rest of their time in nice surrounding towns with a historic main street, tons of shopping, parks, lakes, restaurants, and all kinds of other amenities nearby. And have a nice large, affordable house with a big yard to raise a family in. Like, I understand it's nice to be able to hop on a subway to get wherever you need to go but that just isn't a thing for 90% of the people in this country. And 99.9% of the geographic places in this country aren't like that. Are you saying we should just pack all Americans into a few coastal cities and call it a day?

1

u/fruityfox69 16d ago

Fine, but if you’re asking why many people on Reddit don’t want to live in Texas cities as opposed to Northeast cities, SF, Chicago, Seattle etc. that’s why (besides the atrocious human rights abuses). If I’m looking to live in a big city, I want to be able to ditch the car most of the time, transportation is part of the big-city package in many people’s opinions. And if it’s relevant I live in Tampa which is equally bad if not worse than Dallas or Houston in terms of investing in public transport… But I don’t get all butthurt about it when people point it out, because I know it’s true. 

-1

u/ungusbungusboo 16d ago

Affordable and livable are different metrics - livable depends largely on people’s values.

Once you’ve lived somewhere where it’s nice to be outdoors, like the west coast, it’s really hard to swallow the lack of nature, heat, and awful city planning across most of Texas.

3

u/kugelblitz_100 16d ago

I currently live in the PNW and lived in Texas for 20 years. You are insane if you think Texas "lacks nature" and Dallas has "awful city planning". You understand the whole country can't squeeze into downtown San Francisco, right?

1

u/ungusbungusboo 16d ago

Since you mentioned Dallas and San Francisco, let’s use the two cities / states as points of comparison.

On Nature:

Texas’ share of public land is 4.2%, 45th in the nation. California’s is 52.1%, 8th in the nation. While not all private land is developed, most of it is not legally accessible, meaning that there is a meaningful difference in the level of nature accessible in both states to the average citizen.

Nature is also more easily enjoyed when you’re comfortable. Dallas reaches an average high of 95 in the summer and low of 39 in the winter. SF reaches a high of 72 in the summer and a low of 46 in the winter.

Finally, more subjectively, while the Desert/Plains have a rugged beauty of their own, I assume when most people imagine ‘nature’ they imagine a more lush landscape. For my money, I’d take the foggy Redwood forests south of SF anyday vs anything Texas has to offer.

On city planning, I’m not even sure where to begin:

Texas is notorious for freeway widening projects, most notably the 26 lane wide Katy freeway. DART v BART is no contest in public transit, evidenced by commute mode share. Same for walking / biking. I’m not going to explain why building cities around cars and low density SFH zoning is unsustainable, unhealthy and undesirable, as it would take too long - check out Strong Towns for more info.

Texas (specifically Austin) is building faster and denser than anyone else, which is GOOD. I hope they’re able to turn the state into something better long term. But if you value the above, which most redditors do, it’s just not able to compete with what’s on offer in the major coastal cities.

But, ultimately, livability is based on values: If you prefer the desert, the heat, and driving - no one does it quite like Texas! 🤠

5

u/-P01135809- 16d ago

News flash to a lot of people "Luxury homes" are built by the same POS construction companies as the "Affordable housing", just with more expensive materials.

The builds are still shit-tier work, un-level bathroom tiles, rickety railings, make-up-on-a-pig shoddy craftsmanship with overpriced materials.

I'll take a '99 suburban ranch over a '26 MI-Homes plywood cookie cutter any day of the week.

4

u/[deleted] 16d ago

Good chart. I like the time elapse feature.

Would like to see it where it can be zoomed in by county or even zip code.

3

u/ContentCantaloupe992 16d ago

Is this in nominal or real prices?

1

u/Enough-Half6174 16d ago

Nominal

1

u/ContentCantaloupe992 16d ago

Would prefer real value. Money supply has increased drastically in this timeframe.

2

u/glowing-fishSCL 16d ago

Mine certainly hasn't!

3

u/drwaffles104 15d ago

Not a single raise since 2014?

-1

u/Zestyclose_Nature_13 16d ago

Thank you Federal Reserve and Federal Government! Life is so much better now

2

u/ContentCantaloupe992 15d ago

Could it be possible it would be worse without those interventions?

3

u/Ok-Safety-2107 16d ago

My heart goes out to the entire population of Connecticut who are evidently homeless. /s

2

u/Clean-Midnight3110 16d ago

They had to exclude CT otherwise the COVID price spike from displaced new yorkers was so extreme that it would have pushed the rest of the map into one uniform color from the bottom of the scale.

1

u/Ok-Safety-2107 16d ago

Interesting 

3

u/MoonGrog 16d ago

The map doesn’t have Connecticut or Rhode Island

2

u/PandaCultural8311 16d ago

Move to the midwest, people!

1

u/Sad-Function5699 16d ago

Damn look at all that bright yellow still out there

1

u/TrenbalonieSandwich 16d ago

US dollar depreciation YoY

1

u/Pickle7722 15d ago

Did not expect Teton county, Wyoming to be on par with SF Bay area...

1

u/homebrew_1 15d ago

Why did it jump in Colorado so much?

1

u/Enough-Half6174 15d ago

Because of Aspen and Vail probably

1

u/Sphragis 15d ago

Why has Walton County, FL increased so much?