Elliot and Beth Matthews have been looking for a house in Cheyenne since February.
The couple from Johnstown, Colorado, are both professionals. Elliot is a geological engineer, and his wife works as an architect in her own business.
When Elliot learned that Realtor.com published a report and map showing homebuyers in Wyoming need an income of $132,000 to buy a typical three-bedroom home, he said he can relate.
“Based on my particular metrics, that all matches up very well,” Matthews said.
According to Realtor.com, the American dream of affording a three-bedroom home carries a $158,000 difference in annual income between the most and least expensive states in the U.S.
In April, the website reported homebuyers in Hawaii need $229,000 annually while those in West Virginia can get a comparable house for $71,000.
Wyoming’s $132,000 income, like the other states, is based on a calculation for a three-bedroom home, a 6.65% interest rate for a 30-year mortgage and a 10% down payment.
Real estate agents in Cheyenne and Casper say the figure for Wyoming is skewed by high-priced Teton County, which hit a record average single-family home price of $8.6 million in 2023.
In Cheyenne, Adrianna True at RE/Max Capitol Properties said she has a couple who work at a nonprofit in the process of buying a house.
“I am not seeing $130,000 being the median,” she said. “I do think it’s a lot more affordable than people think.”
Home-buying opportunities for people with annual incomes in the $60,000 to $70,000 range are possible.
“It’s not impossible to buy a home if you have people working with you who know what they are doing,” she said.
Not His Experience
Dominic Valdez, an agent with #1 Properties Brokerage in Cheyenne, is helping the Matthews get into their new home. He agrees, and said entry level buyers typically do not have that kind of income.
“I think even a first-time ‘move-up’ buyer does not have that kind of income, in this area anyway,” he said. “But our prices are entirely different than what they are in Teton County.”
The website Homes.com on Friday had eight three-bedroom homes in the Cheyenne region listed under $300,000.
Laurel Lunstrum, a broker in Casper and president of the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) that covers a good portion of the state, said the median price of a homes covered by the MLS is $295,000. The listing does not cover areas such as Cody or Jackson Hole.
“The majority of people are getting MHA pricing, which is about 5% down,” she said.
Lunstrum said banks typically don’t want mortgage payments to be more than 28% of a buyer’s income. So, she said using the median $295,000 price with 5% down and calculating the annual income needed she came up with a $57,000 a year income.
Lunstrum said mortgage interest rates are now at 6% to 7%, depending on the loan. She said loans by the VA and FHA are 6%, a conventional 30-year mortgage interest is below 7%.
For homebuyers who may need a little financial help, the Wyoming Community Development Authority offers programs for first-time homebuyers as well as those who have owned homes before that can assist with down payments and other costs, Lunstrum said.
“What we see mostly is we’ll see people with good income, but they won’t have money for a down payment and closing costs,” she said. “With that program, they can borrow that. Some of the programs even forgive the down payment and the closing costs. It makes it affordable for them to be able to purchase a home.”
Inventory Issue
Lunstrum said the hardest thing for those wanting to buy homes in the state is enough inventory, particularly in the lower price ranges. She said new construction is typically much more than $300,000.
Costs for developers have also gone up, making projects targeting affordable housing much more difficult to accomplish, she said.
Data at the website attomdata.com, which provides national real estate data, as of April showed 249,616 residential properties in Wyoming with an average age of 51 years. Sales in the state effective April 22 showed 625 homes sold in 2025. In 2024, there were 7,569 residential sales.
A sampling of the median value of homes from the past 30 days showed Albany County at $393,104, Campbell County at $321,903, Goshen County at $232,494, Laramie County at $355,923, Natrona County at $300,345, Park County at $455,154 and Teton County at $2.5 million.
A search on Homes.com for a three-bedroom home in Jackson uncovered a three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home for $399,000, but it is situated in a land-lease community. That land lease is $2,500 per month.
The next lowest price for a three-bedroom that was not a fractional ownership was $1.5 million for a three-bedroom, two-bath home just south of town and marketed as “perfect for first-time home buyers.”
Matthews said his research of the Cheyenne market showed an average listing price of around $404,000 for homes. He and his wife have looked at more than 30 properties since February before landing on their four-bedroom, three-bath home on the north side of Cheyenne.
Buyer’s Perspective
He said at first, they looked at homes in the $500,000 to $600,000 range, but after crunching the numbers decided to pare down their expectations. Their home purchase price is coming in at a few thousand dollars less that the $404,000 average, Matthews said.
“The new builds around Cheyenne, I don’t know what the average is, but I would guess it’s somewhere around the $600K mark for a new build with three or four bedrooms and two or three baths,” he said. “We are buying a 1970s vintage house and it’s around $400K.”
Matthews said both he and his wife have good incomes, and he finds it hard to understand who is buying the $600,000 homes without putting themselves at financial risk.
He said the budget with their new property and a mortgage rate of 6.6% will put housing expenses that include the mortgage, insurances and utilities at about 33% of their income.
“Maybe that’s just us being very conservative,” he said. “But it just blows my mind what is on the market and what is being marketed as, ‘This is the entry level house.’”
Matthews sold a condo a few years ago and added money from that sale to his down payment. The couple has been renting in Johnstown while they looked for a home, and he is keeping his job in the Denver area and will work from Cheyenne.
He estimates that buying a similar house in Johnstown or a Denver suburb would be at least $50,000 more expensive.
Realtor.com lists the income needed for three-bedroom home buyers in Colorado at $161,000.
Even without their purchase, Matthews said they were going to make the move and rent if need be. Taxes will be more favorable for his wife’s business in Wyoming.
“I’ve always liked Wyoming,” he said. “There is a cultural element there that drew me to the state.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
