Houses Cheaper, Homeownership Rates Higher In Red States Than Blue States

Housing is one of the critical issues at hand in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, as both candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, will make cases for their respective residential real estate and tax policies. Voters in red states and blue states will make their choices based on entirely different viewpoints.

Using research from Nielsen Demographics, Nielsen Scarborough, Nielsen Financial, and Politico, Realtor.com looked at housing data and demographics in Democratic states, Republican states, and swing states.

The analysis found that homes were larger and cheaper in the red states, which include the majority of the South and Midwest. Homeownership rates were also higher in these states. Blue states, which include California, the Pacific Northwest, and the East Coast, have a higher median household income and a greater share of households that earn more than $500,000.

Red states tend to be rural and blue states have most of the nation’s most populous cities.

“[The analysis] was a perfect statement of why there are such differences politically between red and blue states,” Realtor.com Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke says. “The way of life is clearly different between the two.”

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