2024-10-15 08:00:00
Home affordability has long been a well-known challenge across the country. Recent mortgage rate hikes have made it even more difficult for buyers to keep up with the already high housing prices.
In 2024, over 103.5 million American households have been priced out of the housing market. To illustrate this, our map shows the percentage of households that can afford a new home, along with the median price of a new home in each state.
First, we color-coded each state based on the median new home price according to an index from the National Association of Home Builders. Second, we overlaid a circle representing how many households live in each state. And finally, we shaded a slice of each circle to indicate what percentage of households can afford a home. The result of our analysis is a detailed snapshot of the U.S. housing crisis from coast to coast.
| State | Percentage of Households Who Can Afford the Median Price New Home |
|---|---|
| 1. Vermont | 8% |
| 2. Connecticut | 11% |
| 3. Hawaii | 12% |
| 4. Arkansas | 12% |
| 5. Wyoming | 13% |
| 6. New Hampshire | 13% |
| 7. Oregon | 13% |
| 8. Oklahoma | 13% |
| 9. Massachusetts | 14% |
| 10. Idaho | 14% |
In one broad stroke, our map uses a housing affordability index to illustrate the crisis across the country. There are only 3 states where 30% or more of the households can afford a home: Virginia (34%), Mississippi (32%) and Alaska (30%). In the vast majority of places, hardly anyone is in a position to pay the mortgage on a typical single-family home. This means that in places like Vermont, where only 8% of the population can afford to own a new home, families are getting financially stretched thin.
But our map also tells a deeper story about housing prices. Interestingly, housing prices alone are not the sole determiner of affordability. If a lot of families have high enough incomes to support themselves, then an expensive housing market in itself doesn’t make homeownership impossible. Take D.C. as an example, a state notorious for exorbitant housing prices, where a new home costs $758K and 24% of households can afford it. In contrast, Kentucky has a significantly lower median home price of $385K, but only 23% of households can afford it. However, because D.C. has a much smaller number of households, the actual number of households that can afford a home is significantly higher there, despite the home being nearly double the price.
If you are on the market for a new home, or shopping around for a better loan rate, check out our mortgage cost guide today.
2024-10-15 08:00:00
Many people define the American dream as owning your own home, not to mention a comfortable lifestyle, healthy children, and a secure retirement. But the ability to afford a home—let alone all those other things—depends entirely on where you live and your level of income. This makes apples-to-apples comparisons across the country extremely difficult. How can you easily compare real estate locations and income levels for the entire population? Take a look at our new map to find out.
Our experts took a unique and creative approach to modeling the data. We started first by taking data from the U.S. Census Bureau to find out the median income for people in 98 of the biggest cities in the U.S. Using a 40-hour work week as the standard, we calculated an average hourly rate. This levels the playing field between all the different types of jobs in the country (some people make a salary, others are paid by the hour).
Next, thanks to Zillow, we figured out the median housing price for each city and determined a monthly mortgage payment. Most people take out a 30-year loan, so that’s what we used too. Finally, we compared the two numbers to see how long you’d have to work to make that mortgage payment each month. We color-coded and mapped the results, revealing a couple of key insights into the housing market and income inequality in the U.S.
The red circles represent places where you have to work the most hours to keep the roof over your head. Only in cities in California do you put in more than 100 hours to make enough money just to pay for housing. That’s longer than two-and-a-half weeks, meaning well over 50% of your take-home pay! Not surprisingly, unaffordable places are all located on the either coastline. In fact, 8 of the 10 most expensive places are all located in California while the other 2 are in New York and New Jersey.
1. Irvine, CA - 117 hours
2. Los Angeles, CA - 115 hours
3. Anaheim, CA - 104 hours
4. San Jose, CA - 101 hours
5. Long Beach, CA - 99 hours
6. New York, NY - 98 hours
7. San Francisco, CA - 97 hours
8. San Diego, CA - 93 hours
9. Santa Ana, CA - 92 hours
10. Newark, NJ - 87 hours
Although most of the expensive places to live are concentrated on the coasts, you can find affordable housing almost anywhere else in the country. The best places are cities like Louisville, KY and Detroit, MI (18 and 19 hours, respectively). That’s right—you don’t need to work past lunch on Wednesday to earn enough money to make a mortgage payment in the Midwest. That’s an incredible standard of living.
2024-10-10 08:00:00
Our new visualization looks at the most valuable companies of all time, measured by their market capitalization.
We gathered the market capitalization data for this visualization from Yahoo Finance as of September 17, 2024, with VOC, Mississippi, South Sea, and Standard Oil values from Fool.com, and Petro China’s from CNBC. All prices are expressed in USD. The companies in the visualization are listed in order from lowest market capitalization at the top to highest market capitalization at the bottom, with each company’s corresponding circle growing larger to reflect the size of its market cap. The years on the right indicate the date we referenced for the market capitalization data.
1. Dutch East India Company: $8.28 trillion
2. Mississippi Company: $6.8 trillion
3. Saudi Aramco: $6.58 trillion
4. South Sea Company: $4.5 trillion
5. Apple: $3.29 trillion
6. Microsoft: $3.21 trillion
7. Nvidia: $2.86 trillion
8. Alphabet: $1.95 trillion
9. Amazon: $1.94 trillion
10. META (Facebook) $1.35 trillion
The Dutch East India Co. holds the distinction of being the first company to offer shares of its business to the public, effectively conducting the world's first initial public offering (IPO). Interestingly, the three shipping companies on this list--the Dutch East India Co., the Mississippi Co. and the South Sea Co.--had market caps more than twice as high as today’s biggest company, Saudi Aramco. These “joint-stock companies” that sought to capitalize on trade with the New World ultimately went bankrupt before 1800. However, the Dutch East India Co. in particular ushered in a new wave of economic growth and social change similar to how industry giants in the tech field are doing today.
Another company on this list that no longer exists is John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company. The Standard Oil Company was dissolved on May 15, 1911 when the Supreme Court ruled that it was a monopoly and therefore violated the Sherman Antitrust Act. As legislators turn their attention to Big Tech and whether or not companies like Google and Amazon are also in violation of antitrust laws, it is interesting to ponder if history will repeat itself or what might turn out differently this time around.
Do you think more of these companies will reach market caps above $1 trillion? How do you think future legislation may impact some of these large tech and financial companies and their market caps? Please let us know in the comments.
Data: Table 1.1
2024-10-02 08:00:00
Each major sporting group has its way of doing things, complete with stunning performances, millions of screaming fans, and an impressive grand prize and trophy at the end. Although the debate over which sport is best will rage on forever, we can answer the question of which sports league makes the most money. Below you will find a graphic of the wealthiest sports leagues by revenue in 2024.
You can see the top 20 sports teams shown by each individual logo in order of revenue from right to left, with revenues placed above each logo.
National Football League (NFL)
USA - American Football - Revenue: $13 billion
Major League Baseball (MLB)
USA/Canada - Baseball - Revenue: $11.6 billion
National Basketball Association (NBA)
USA/Canada - Basketball - Revenue: $10.6 billion
Premier League
England/Wales - Soccer - Revenue: $8.1 billion
National Hockey League (NHL)
USA/Canada - Ice Hockey - Revenue: $6.4 billion
La Liga
Spain - Soccer - Revenue: $6.1 billion
Bundesliga
Germany - Soccer - Revenue: $5 billion
Serie A
Italy - Soccer - Revenue: $3.2 billion
Ligue 1
France/Monaco - Soccer - Revenue: $3.2 billion
Formula One
Global - Motorsport - Revenue: $3.2 billion
There are two major patterns that can be seen from our infographic. First, football leagues dominate the top chart. Now, there is a big debate over the use of the term football. America and a few other countries use the term soccer, while most of the world uses the term football. Either way, it’s an extremely popular sport. Out of the top 20 leagues by revenue, 6 are soccer, or to give them their official name, associated football groups. These leagues make a combined $27.2 billion and most of them are unsurprisingly located in Europe. You may also be able to see the popularity of a sport in a certain region. European football leagues enjoy large revenues due to their popularity. Although America’s Major League Soccer (MLS) takes the 11th spot on our list, its revenues are well below the major European football leagues. In comparison, the Premier League in England makes $8.1 billion, making it the top football/soccer league by revenue.
The second major trend that you should notice is that 4 out of the top 5 positions are dominated by American/Canadian sports leagues. Not only this, but also the revenue of these leagues far outpaces all others. The National Football League alone commands $13 billion in revenue, giving it the top spot overall by a huge amount. The combined revenues of the NFL and MLB are equal to $24.6 billion, surpassing the top 14 football leagues. When you add in the NBA and NHL, the combined revenue is $17 billion. Another smaller trend to notice is the diversity of sports leagues in America and Canada. While all of Europe’s top sports leagues involve football, America’s and Canada’s top leagues by revenue span 5 different sports: American Football, Baseball, Basketball, Ice Hockey, and Football/Soccer.
Europeans as well as others certainty enjoy their football, while American and Canadians seem to enjoy a more diverse set of sports. Although football leagues are various and post decent revenues, the sports leagues coming out of North America make more money.
Which Professional Sports Leagues Make the Most Money? pic.twitter.com/fecARNtqRS https://t.co/36XfEc3ydR #sportsbiz #dataviz
— How Much (@howmuch_net) October 1, 2024
Please feel free to leave your comments below! We would like to hear your feedback.
2024-09-30 08:00:00
We know commuting is costly, but just how much are Americans spending on their commutes? Depending on the state, Americans spend as much as over $3,000 per year on their daily commutes - including gas, maintenance costs, public transportation, and other expenses.
Let’s take a look at how much the average American spends on transportation in each U.S. state, including Washington, D.C.
To demonstrate the average commuting costs in the United States, we used data from The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and U.S. Census Bureau , which was also summarized in Business Insider, which demonstrates how much adults spend on transportation in all 50 states, plus Washington, D.C. By analyzing this data, not only can we see how much commuters are spending on transportation, but also which types of transportation workers are utilizing to get to work.
1. Florida: $3,140
2. Louisiana: $2,905
3. Michigan: $2,901
4. Nevada: $3,660.54
5. New Jersey: $3,631.39
1. Ohio: $1,369
2. North Carolina: $1,482
3. Idaho: $1,497
4. Wisconsin: $1,548
5. Iowa: $1,549
Adults in the U.S. are spending thousands of dollars on transportation every year. While the type of transportation is a major factor in the overall cost of commuting, there are other factors to consider. Commute time, in particular, seems to be a major contributor to the overall cost of transportation.
Washington, D.C., for example, has, by far, the largest number of workers who choose environmentally-friendly transportation options. Yet, it is number 33 in transportation spending. This may be due to D.C. having the second-longest commute time in the country. New York also seems to support this trend. Despite nearly 47% of residents choosing environmentally-friendly transportation, the Big Apple has the third-highest average commute cost — likely due to the city having the longest average commute in the U.S.
As the graphic demonstrates, the average American is spending quite a bit on transportation every year. But these costs seem to be impacted by more than method of transportation. Environmentally-friendly methods allow commuters to reduce costs per-person by spreading out the cost of each ride to multiple people.
Are the cost-savings of going green worth making the switch? Have any other ideas for saving money on your commute? Let us know in the comments.
2021-06-09 21:23:25
How big is the market for insurance in the U.S.? And which companies dominate the industry? Our newest visualization provides an intuitive way to think about insurance company rankings based on direct premiums.
We found the information for our visualization at the Insurance Information Institute (III). We wanted to understand how much money was coming into which companies across the entire insurance industry, broken down into different sectors. The circles in our visual correspond to the amount of direct premiums written in 2020, while the color highlights the relative percentage of market share. We added each company’s logo to make it even easier to see the largest winners in each sector.
Our visualization shows how some parts of the insurance industry are a lot more top-heavy than others. MetLife clearly dominated the life/annuity sector last year, taking in some $103.3M in direct premiums. Life insurance is complicated, but that represents about 13% of the entire market. Homeowners and auto insurance are also both top-heavy, with State Farm taking the top spot in each. But compare that to workers’ compensation or commercial property insurance, where several companies control much smaller slices. In fact, Travelers and Hartford are the only two companies with more than 5% market share of workers’ comp (7.3% and 5.9%, respectively).
There are a few things to keep in mind about our visualization of insurance premiums. First off, our visual doesn’t consider reinsurance, which occurs when a company issues a policy and then transfers the underlying risk to other companies. Different types of insurance are also subject to wildly different market conditions. A major hurricane for example could devastate a large part of the country, and property/casualty companies could lose a lot of money. Likewise, the COVID-19 pandemic has scrambled plans around life expectancy, not to mention workers’ compensation. In other words, just because a company is getting a lot of premium income, doesn’t necessarily mean it translates into profitability.
If you are looking for any type of insurance, we have a robust set of cost guides to help get you started today.
Data: Table 1.1
