Best places for homeownership
Rankings built from the same Census, FEMA, FHFA, and IRS data that powers every county and state page on HomeRule. Each list shows the top 20 in a chart, the top 50 in a sortable table, and an explanation of the methodology so you can judge the ranking on its merits.
- CountiesView ranking →Most affordable countiesOwner cost as a share of household income
Counties where the typical homeowner spends the smallest share of household income on housing. Source: Census ACS.
- StatesView ranking →Fastest-appreciating statesFive-year change in the FHFA House Price Index
States where home values have grown most over the last five years. Useful for understanding momentum, not a forecast.
- CountiesView ranking →Lowest property tax countiesMedian annual property tax bill
Counties with the lowest median property tax bills, restricted to counties of at least 25,000 people. Source: Census ACS B25103.
- CountiesView ranking →Lowest flood risk countiesFEMA NFIP historical claims signal
Counties with the fewest historical NFIP flood insurance claims. Use as a screening signal, not a parcel-level flood determination.
- StatesView ranking →Highest homeownership statesShare of housing units that are owner-occupied
States with the highest share of owner-occupied housing. Often a proxy for affordability, household stability, and rural land mix.
- StatesView ranking →Best states for first-time buyersComposite: price-to-income, taxes, ownership, appreciation
A weighted score that rewards low price-to-income, low property tax, high homeownership, and steady appreciation.
How HomeRule rankings work
- Every metric comes from a public government dataset. We do not survey, model, or score subjectively.
- County rankings are limited to counties of 25,000 or more residents to avoid micro-counties dominating cost lists.
- Composite scores normalize each input to a 0–1 range and weight inputs by their relevance to the question being asked.
- Rankings update on the same cadence as the underlying datasets (Census ACS yearly, FHFA HPI quarterly, FEMA NFIP daily).