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Jefferson County · Alabama

Birmingham, AL housing costs

What a home costs to buy and to rent here, how old the housing stock is, and how much of a paycheck rent takes — all from Census ACS 5-year estimates.

Quick answer

The median home in Birmingham, AL is worth $138,600 and median gross rent is $1,047 a month. That is 54% below the national median home value of $303,400. 45.1% of occupied homes are owner-occupied, against 65% nationally.

Median home value
$138,600#90 of 94 metros
Median gross rent
$1,047/mo#80 of 94 metros
Owner-occupied
45.1%US average 65%
Median year built
1965Half the homes here are older than this

Can a median household here buy a median home?

Price-to-income is the plainest affordability yardstick there is.

Birmingham's median household earns $44,290 a year while the median home is worth $138,600. That is a price-to-income ratio of 3.1×, against roughly 3.9× nationally. Lenders have historically treated anything above 4× as stretched. Renters at the median put 33.4% of household income into gross rent; 30% is the federal threshold for “cost-burdened”.

Related data for Birmingham

The same household, seen from three angles.

Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates

Tables B25077, B25064, B25003, B25035 and B25071, 2019-2023 ACS 5-year, Census place 107,000. Values are place-level, not metro-area-wide.