Small towns that have big home prices; More Americans reporting on-time rent payments; Median income stalls again

Places such as San Jose, New York City and San Francisco indeed have some of the priciest homes in the nation, but there's also a group of small towns where prices are upwards of $1 million, a recent study found.

Nantucket and Vineyard Haven, both in Massachusetts, and Jackson, Wyoming, are home to the nation's most expensive small-town housing markets, a LendingTree study released Monday found. The median home price is $1.38 million in Nantucket, $1.1 million in Vineyard Haven and $954,000 in Jackson, the personal finance website said.

For its study, LendingTree examined home values for towns with a population of 10,000 to 50,000 using 2023 U.S. Census Bureau data. Nantucket and Vineyard Haven are pricey because those two island towns feature wealthy second-home buyers while the area has limited housing inventory, LendingTree said. Jackson, on the other hand, attracts the ultra-wealthy who want Wyoming's no state income tax benefits, LendingTree said.

It's important to note where these towns are because it "means that homeownership isn’t within reach for the typical person in those areas," Matt Schulz, LendingTree chief consumer finance analyst, said in the study.

"Even though those places have some of the highest median incomes in America, they’re not enough to be able to afford to buy a home there," he said.

The percentage of U.S. consumers reporting their rent payments to major credit bureaus rose to 13% this year compared to 11% last year, a TransUnion report released Wednesday found.

The uptick arrives just months after the Federal Housing Finance Agency mandated that mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac accept VantageScore 4.0 instead of FICO for underwriting purposes. The VantageScore factors in on-time rent payments from consumers, and TransUnion officials said they believe even more renters will likely start reporting those payments.

"The vast majority of renters reliably make on-time payments, and they deserve to leverage that proven responsibility toward homeownership and other financial opportunities," Maitri Johnson, senior vice president and head of TransUnion’s tenant and employment screening business, said in a statement.

TransUnion's report was based on an online survey the company conducted in early March among 2,006 adults. The survey found that 57% of respondents said they're more likely to rent from a property if the landlord reports payments to a credit bureau and another 80% of respondents said they're more likely to pay on time when the payments are reported.

The survey also found that 79% of renters who reported their payments saw their credit scores increase.

"Rent payment reporting is well documented as a means to improving credit scores and financial inclusion, so I’m happy to see that more consumers are empowered to participate," Johnson said in the statement. "We hope the new FHFA policy will help increase the number of consumers opting in for rent payment reporting."

The median household income for Americans hit $83,730 in 2024, which is "not statistically different from the 2023 estimate of $82,690," officials from the U.S. Census Bureau said Tuesday.

The government agency reached that conclusion after publishing a 2024 study on poverty in the United States. The study found that the nation's official poverty rate fell only 0.4 percentage points to 10.6% in 2024 because, in part, incomes haven't grown much. The study also noted income disparities between Black, Hispanic and White households didn't budge.

The Census report "shows that the economy was reasonably strong in 2024, but wide inequities across income, racial and ethnic groups persisted," Sharon Parrott, president of the Washington, D.C., think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said in a statement.

Overall, incomes rose slightly, but "in a troubling development, Black household income declined 3.3% to $56,020 from the record high point it reached in 2023," Parrott said.