The Midwest's 134-year affordability record sets it apart from the national housing picture

Midwest housing affordability has held for 134 years, spanning the full arc of modern American home price history, and the region stays in focus as a long-run reference point against a national story of significant price change.

The long count

Home prices across the United States shifted dramatically over the past century. The Midwest held. One city in the region has maintained its standing as one of America's most affordable places to buy a home across that entire stretch, a run long enough to outlast the conditions that moved costs higher elsewhere in the country.

The 134-year figure is the number that anchors the regional story. It covers cycles that reset affordability in other parts of the country, and it traces the Midwest's consistent position on the accessible end of the national housing market.

For the setup, affordability that holds across more than a century of national price movement reads as a structural feature of the region rather than a short-term data point. The Midwest's record is the fact. What fills in the picture next is the city-level detail and whether current metrics hold the relative position the region has maintained since before the 20th century.

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