Years-to-own

Definition

Years-to-own is the ratio of the median home value to the median household income in a place, computed from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey 5-year estimates. It is the simplest single-number affordability ratio: how many years of pre-tax income does the median household need to buy the median home.

Source data

• Census ACS 5-Year (B25077) — Median value of owner-occupied housing units (2019–2023)
• Census ACS 5-Year (B19013) — Median household income in the past 12 months (inflation-adjusted) (2019–2023)

Steps

1. Pull median home value (B25077_001E) and median household income (B19013_001E) at the ZCTA level from ACS 5-Year 2019–2023.
2. Aggregate to the place level using population weighting across all ZCTAs that the Census Place intersects.
3. Compute years_to_own as the simple ratio.
4. Buckets: very affordable (<3), affordable (3–5), expensive (5–8), very expensive (>8).

Known limitations

• ACS 5-Year combines five years of data; the value reflects the period midpoint, not the latest year.
• Median home value is self-reported by respondents and does not match the recent transaction sale price.
• Pre-tax household income; ignores housing-related tax deductions and downpayment requirements.
• Does not account for mortgage interest rates — at higher rates, the same years-to-own represents a larger monthly burden.
• Places with very small populations have wider ACS confidence intervals; we suppress values where the ZCTA pop is < 100.

Where this metric appears

Every place page (in the at-glance card), the Years-to-own list, and the Local Affordability Index.

Related methodology

• Rent burden
• Local Affordability Index

Cite this methodology

Commerce Institute. (2026). Years-to-own — Methodology. Retrieved from https://commerceinstitute.org/methodology/years-to-own/.