Idaho is Home to Three of The Most Expensive Small Towns in America
Idaho is actually home to not one, but three of America's most expensive small towns.
Hailey, Idaho cracks the top 5 based on data provided by Lending Tree with a median home value of $413,700. Meanwhile, the median household income is only $54,987. Lending Tree attributes this to the fact that Hailey is a very popular vacation spot for affluent individuals who probably don't actually make the money locally but can afford to buy big wealthy homes in the area. Lending Tree reports that "these types of buyers drive up home prices and make housing difficult to afford for locals who are not high-income earners."
Relative to income, homes in Hailey, Idaho, are among the most expensive in the entire country. The median home price is an average of 8.19 times higher than the median area household income. This suggests that homebuyers local to towns such as Hailey have to stretch their budgets to buy a home. Similar to what was also seen in the Treasure Valley.
Hailey is actually comparable to Washington, DC where the median home value is $424,000. It wasn't the only small town in Idaho to make the list either.
In addition to Hailey, two other small towns have been named by Lendingtree as the most expensive small towns in the entire country. Sandpoint is listed as the 18th most expensive small town with a median household income of $48,440 and median home value of $265,400 and is comparable to the Las Vegas metro. Moscow is the 26th most expensive town with a median income of $49,158 and homes being valued at $228,200 which is comparable to Orlando, Florida.
LOOK: Here is the richest town in each state
Gallery Credit: Meagan Drillinger