The Least Expensive Zip Code in Idaho

The median home sale price in the U.S in 2020 was over a quarter-million dollars ($265,000), but in one Idaho zip code homes are selling for a lot less than that.

The median home sale price in the Pocatello zip code 82301 is $201,000, and according to sales prices from ATTOM Data Solutions, that's the least expensive zip code in Idaho. Homes in the Pocatello zip code are selling for about $100,000 less than the typical Idaho home, and $64,000 less than a typical home nationwide.   If you're curious, the median salary there is about $50,000 per year.

Idaho is not exactly dirt cheap anywhere.  There are dozens of zip codes around the country that have home sales prices under six figures and houses that cost as much as a fancy car are still out there, but Idaho sure is short on those.

24/7 Wall Street posted the least expensive ZIP codes in America last week, based on the median sales price of condos and single-family homes in 2020.  They only considered zip codes with at least 1,000 homes and at least 500 sales.

After they crunched the numbers, they figured out that the least expensive zip code in America is on the East Coast.  I would think Midwest, somewhere in the smattering of small rural towns like the one where I grew up in Nebraska that's bordered by cornfields and cemeteries.  But nope.  That's probably because there are not more than 1,000 homes and 500 sales in places like that.

The zip code 21223 in Baltimore, Maryland had the lowest median home sales price of $26,000.  Wow!  Wanna move?  Me neither, but that would make for a pretty great mortgage payment.  Most of the homes there are more than fifty years old, but the remodeling budget might be easy to find with the bones priced that low to start.  We've seen enough Fixer Upper episodes to get a running start, and there are always good handymen on the dating apps.  This could work.

Zillow says the average home value in Boise is $465,000, so we're not going to find too many bargain-basement deals in the Treasure Valley.  But, then again, maybe it's a good thing not to be dirt cheap.