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How Many Gold Bars Does It Take to Buy a Home?
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Key Takeaways
- Hawaii requires the most gold to buy a home: 8 bars worth over $840K.
- In West Virginia, just 1.6 gold bars can buy a median-priced home.
What if, instead of using dollars, we measured the cost of buying a home in something timeless and tangible like gold?
This visualization compares the number of 1-kilogram gold bars needed to purchase a median-priced home across U.S. states. The data for this visualization comes from Elemetal. It compares Zillow’s median home price data with the value of a single 1 kg gold bar, roughly $105,000 at the time of analysis.
Housing in Gold: States That Require the Most
The most expensive states in the country—Hawaii, California, and Massachusetts—require between 6 to 8 gold bars to buy a typical home. In Hawaii, a median-priced house costs about $840,000, equal to 8 bars of gold. In these states, a single gold bar only covers 12–16% of the home’s value.
| Rank | State | Median Home Value | Gold Bars to Buy a Home |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaii | $840,570 | 8.0 |
| 2 | California | $787,508 | 7.5 |
| 3 | Massachusetts | $658,559 | 6.2 |
| 4 | Washington | $611,301 | 5.8 |
| 5 | New Jersey | $564,794 | 5.3 |
| 6 | Colorado | $556,482 | 5.3 |
| 7 | Utah | $535,217 | 5.1 |
| 8 | Oregon | $507,501 | 4.8 |
| 9 | New Hampshire | $504,017 | 4.8 |
| 10 | New York | $501,982 | 4.8 |
| 11 | Rhode Island | $492,939 | 4.7 |
| 12 | Idaho | $473,403 | 4.5 |
| 13 | Montana | $463,741 | 4.4 |
| 14 | Nevada | $454,694 | 4.3 |
| 15 | Maryland | $433,735 | 4.1 |
| 16 | Arizona | $431,473 | 4.1 |
| 17 | Connecticut | $430,504 | 4.1 |
| 18 | Maine | $414,774 | 3.9 |
| 19 | Virginia | $409,382 | 3.9 |
| 20 | Delaware | $403,858 | 3.8 |
| 21 | Vermont | $400,876 | 3.8 |
| 22 | Florida | $386,556 | 3.7 |
| 23 | Alaska | $372,939 | 3.5 |
| 24 | Wyoming | $364,012 | 3.4 |
| 25 | Minnesota | $349,222 | 3.3 |
| 26 | North Carolina | $337,813 | 3.2 |
| 27 | Tennessee | $336,119 | 3.2 |
| 28 | Georgia | $335,726 | 3.2 |
| 29 | Wisconsin | $328,778 | 3.1 |
| 30 | South Dakota | $317,058 | 3.0 |
| 31 | New Mexico | $314,851 | 3.0 |
| 32 | Texas | $306,581 | 2.9 |
| 33 | South Carolina | $304,094 | 2.9 |
| 34 | Illinois | $282,909 | 2.7 |
| 35 | Pennsylvania | $281,820 | 2.7 |
| 36 | North Dakota | $280,832 | 2.7 |
| 37 | Nebraska | $275,410 | 2.6 |
| 38 | Missouri | $260,908 | 2.5 |
| 39 | Michigan | $260,040 | 2.5 |
| 40 | Indiana | $253,014 | 2.4 |
| 41 | Ohio | $241,500 | 2.3 |
| 42 | Kansas | $240,057 | 2.3 |
| 43 | Alabama | $235,313 | 2.2 |
| 44 | Iowa | $230,197 | 2.2 |
| 45 | Kentucky | $223,225 | 2.1 |
| 46 | Arkansas | $219,240 | 2.1 |
| 47 | Oklahoma | $216,849 | 2.1 |
| 48 | Louisiana | $210,758 | 2.0 |
| 49 | Mississippi | $191,887 | 1.8 |
| 50 | West Virginia | $170,904 | 1.6 |
Where One Gold Bar Goes the Furthest
In contrast, homes in the South and Midwest are far more affordable. West Virginia tops the list as the most affordable, where just 1.6 gold bars (around $171,000) buys a median home. In Mississippi and West Virginia, one gold bar covers over half of a home’s value.
National Average and Regional Divide
Nationally, the average U.S. home costs about 3.9 gold bars—approximately $418,000. Most West Coast and Northeastern states sit well above this benchmark, while Southern and Midwestern states often require fewer than 3 bars.
Learn More on the Voronoi App
If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Mapped: U.S. Households on Welfare by State on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.