Same $80K salary. Austin vs Detroit. The 30-year wealth difference can exceed $500,000 — purely based on where you buy. Pick two cities and see your gap.
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We compare median home values, household incomes, and price-to-income ratios across zip codes using Census Bureau and HUD data. The wealth gap shows how much harder — or easier — homeownership is in your zip vs the national average.
Data from US Census Bureau ACS 5-year estimates. Home values from Zillow Research. Income data from BLS. Updated annually. Educational use only.
Prices and rates are widely reported. Whether a lender says yes is not. In the complete 2025 federal record, denial rates across the 100 largest FHA lenders ran from 1.8% to 78.7% — same programme, same year.
And it is not simply who applies where: standardizing on state, loan amount, income, debt-to-income and loan-to-value, applicant mix explains only a 2.7× range in expected outcomes.
CFPB HMDA 2025, computed by FinanceRateCalc. Covers the highest-volume lenders published per market, not all lenders. Historical observations, not predictions. CC BY 4.0, not independently reproduced.