All glossary terms

Median Household Income

Definition

Median household income is the income level at which half of an area’s households earn more and half earn less. Sourced from the Census American Community Survey, it is the standard measure of local earning power.

Formula

Median of all household incomes in the area

How to interpret it

Income is the denominator of affordability: pairing it with home prices yields the price-to-income ratio, and with housing costs yields cost burden. A market where prices climb faster than income is growing less affordable even if raw prices look reasonable.

See median household income for any state, metro, county, or ZIP code in the Reatlas Market Explorer.

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Related terms

Source: Reatlas analysis of U.S. Census American Community Survey (ACS), Realtor.com, and Zillow market data.