Donate today and get a Marketplace mug -- perfect for all your liquid assets! Donate now
Adventures in Housing

Median home prices are down across the U.S., but location still drives valuation

Sarah Leeson Feb 15, 2024
Heard on:
HTML EMBED:
COPY
The prices you'll encounter depend on where you're looking. David McNew/Getty Images
Adventures in Housing

Median home prices are down across the U.S., but location still drives valuation

Sarah Leeson Feb 15, 2024
Heard on:
The prices you'll encounter depend on where you're looking. David McNew/Getty Images
HTML EMBED:
COPY

In the third quarter of last year, the median sale price of a house in the United States had fallen from around $480,000 in the fourth quarter of 2022 to about $430,000.

But that statistic doesn’t tell the whole story about what you’ll find if you are looking to sell or buy. And as the saying goes, it’s all about location, location, location.

“I never dreamed I would spend this much for a house,” said Caitlin LaClair, a homeowner in Wayland, Massachusetts — a notably expensive housing market.

“And if I thought that I could, I would be living in some amazing mansion, but I just live in a normal house. It’s totally terrifying. Like, it keeps me up thinking about how high my house payments are.”

Click the player above to listen to her whole story.

Tell us your real estate or housing story using the form below, and you may be featured on a future edition of “Adventures in Housing.”

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.