How much home $300,000 buys you in every U.S. state—in Hawaii, it's about as much space as a shipping container

The amount of space a $300,000 budget buys you in the U.S. housing market can vary wildly depending on your location.

In Hawaii, $300,000 covers just 443 square feet, about the size of a 53-foot-long domestic shipping container. But in West Virginia, the same budget stretches to 2,185 square feet, offering four times as much space.

That's according to a recent GOBankingRates study, which analyzed median home price per square foot to show how far $300,000 goes in each state. The study used home price data from the Federal Reserve of St. Louis and housing cost indexes from the Missouri Economic and Research Information Center to calculate how much homebuyers can afford in each state as of January 2025.

A $300,000 budget buys less than 1,000 square feet of space in seven states, most of which are known for high housing costs, including New York and California. Nationwide, $300,000 typically buys a median of 1,511 square feet, which holds true in about half of all states, according to the data.

But unfortunately, $300,000 is less than what most people need to buy a home. The median U.S. home price is $419,200, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Even with a 20% down payment — about $83,840 — buyers would still need to finance approximately $335,000 to buy a typical home.

In expensive markets like Los Angeles, where median home prices can exceed $1 million, a $300,000 budget might not even cover the down payment. As a result, buyers in these high-cost areas are often forced into much smaller properties or to look to surrounding suburbs where prices might be more manageable.

The study also looked at what $400,000 and $500,000 can buy, with square footage comparisons for each state. Here's how far various homebuying budgets go in all 50 U.S. states, listed alphabetically.

Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming