The price of residential land for counties, ZIP codes, and census tracts in the United States

Abstract

Data from millions of appraisals in 2012–2019 are used to estimate residential land prices, the share of house value attributable to land, and related statistics down to the census-tract level for areas that include the vast majority of U.S. population and single-family housing. The results confirm predictions about land prices from canonical urban models. Over 2012–2019, we show that land prices rose faster than house prices in large metro areas, boosting the land share of house value, while the land share fell in smaller metros. The data are available for download at https://www.fhfa.gov/papers/wp1901.aspx.