Original research

Where selling a house is hardest in America

We scored all 52 states on a 0–100 Selling Difficulty Index built from local incomes, price-to-income strain, and market depth across 6,562 cities. Higher score means a seller waits longer and negotiates harder.

Dataset vintage 2026-01-15

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10 hardest states to sell

10 easiest states to sell

Full ranking

#	State	Difficulty	Median city income	Price-to-income	Cities scored
1	Puerto Rico	88	$24,120	8.17	81
2	Arizona	78	$60,925	5.78	69
3	Nevada	78	$70,979	6.24	21
4	Idaho	77	$57,737	6.29	34
5	Montana	77	$56,570	6.59	25
6	Oregon	77	$60,323	6.32	78
7	Florida	76	$60,751	5.66	249
8	Washington	72	$70,865	8.33	129
9	Colorado	71	$77,794	7.4	71
10	California	69	$79,978	10.88	530
11	Utah	69	$74,133	7.18	55
12	Washington D.C.	65	$108,030	8.58	1
13	Georgia	64	$56,152	4.61	211
14	New Mexico	62	$56,934	4.2	36
15	Tennessee	62	$53,146	4.31	143
16	Virginia	62	$71,725	5.4	145
17	North Carolina	61	$54,605	4.47	238
18	Hawaii	59	$87,446	11.14	27
19	Texas	59	$63,117	4.15	377
20	Maine	57	$64,530	5.35	41
21	New York	56	$88,689	6.21	383
22	Vermont	56	$68,697	5.18	17
23	Delaware	55	$65,226	5.01	27
24	South Carolina	54	$55,533	3.93	126
25	South Dakota	54	$61,059	3.68	15
26	New Hampshire	52	$82,477	6.26	42
27	Missouri	51	$56,821	3.27	132
28	Nebraska	51	$63,239	3.26	29
29	Rhode Island	51	$83,485	6.1	32
30	Minnesota	49	$75,502	4.34	104
31	Indiana	48	$59,119	3.3	152
32	Kansas	48	$62,411	3.25	58
33	Kentucky	48	$52,606	2.91	111
34	Wisconsin	48	$67,796	3.97	137
35	Wyoming	48	$68,139	4.53	17
36	Alabama	46	$55,289	3.07	135
37	North Dakota	46	$72,401	3.58	12
38	Ohio	46	$61,136	3.11	265
39	Oklahoma	46	$56,108	2.74	84
40	Arkansas	45	$52,156	2.72	81
41	Alaska	44	$83,079	4.75	15
42	Massachusetts	44	$93,251	7.79	234
43	Michigan	44	$62,644	3.29	254
44	New Jersey	43	$97,507	6.53	310
45	Iowa	42	$64,956	2.96	69
46	Illinois	42	$73,117	3.64	296
47	Louisiana	42	$58,836	2.69	115
48	Maryland	41	$97,873	5.26	137
49	Mississippi	40	$51,344	2.42	96
50	Pennsylvania	40	$69,483	3.58	356
51	West Virginia	38	$57,026	2.17	46
52	Connecticut	31	$99,090	4.84	114

Methodology

The index blends three components, each normalized 0–1 against national reference points and then weighted: affordability strain (40%), income strain (35%), and market thinness (25%).

Affordability strain — estimated median home value divided by median city income. Ratios near 2.0 score as easy, 6.5 and above as hard.
Income strain — median of city mean household incomes (Census ACS) across every city of 7,500+ residents in the state.
Market thinness — population centers per 100,000 residents. Fewer centers means a smaller local buyer pool and longer time on market.

Home values are estimated from each state's median home value, adjusted for city size and local income — the same estimator used across our market reports. This is a modeled index, not recorded sale data — it compares markets to each other rather than predicting an individual sale.

Cite this study

Free to reuse with attribution and a link back to this page.

homeinvestor.co, "Where Selling a House Is Hardest in America" (2026-01-15).
https://homeinvestor.co/research/hardest-places-to-sell

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