Homes Under $200K Still Available in Florida

MIAMI – Affordable housing can be difficult to come by. In the past decade alone, the number of homes for purchase under $200,000 went from half of all sales to 21% of all home sales, according to a recent report from Realtor.com. At the same time, the national median listing price on homes has increased nearly 40% since 2019.

For the roughly two-thirds of Americans who do own homes, location is a major determinate of their home's value. Shopping for a new home on a constrained budget may limit prospective buyers to certain areas in the U.S. The good news is the inventory of smaller and more affordable homes has grown in share, Realtor.com found.

"With lower living costs and increasing inventory, cities like Albany (Georgia) provide great value for homebuyers," Hannah Jones, a senior economic analyst at Realtor.com said in the report. "The South is seeing a big increase in affordable inventory."

The upper-Midwest region is another area that has consistent affordable options for prospective homebuyers.

Realtor.com collected data on cities that had at least 100 total listings available in early June. They compared the total number of listings in the area with the total number of listings priced $200,000 or less.

By volume, Detroit had the most number of listings under $200,000 available, with 1,586 homes for sale or 64% of all listings, no matter the price. Cleveland followed in total volume of affordable listings.

Two suburbs of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, had the highest concentration of affordable homes for sale. In Lauderdale Lakes, 85% of homes for sale were listed for less than $200,000. Lauderhill, Florida, had the second-largest concentration of affordable homes.

In Lauderdale Lakes, the median home price is $149,000, far below the national median listing price of $442,500, according to Realtor.com.

"Areas that were once popular for downsizing are now out of reach for many," Jones said.

The number of affordable home listings has consistently declined between 2013 and 2023. At the beginning of the decade, about half of all listings were below $200,000. Last year, less than a quarter of all home listings were worth $200,000 or less.

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