Every night we pull the public inventory of every land bank in America with a trackable feed. This is what that data says in July 2026: 87,475 properties for sale across 51 land banks in 22 states — median asking price $3,080.
No listing site shows this market. Almost none of it reaches Zillow. Here's the shape of America's cheapest real estate, in five numbers.
1. The headline: 87,475 properties, $3,080 median
Of the 87,475 active listings, 34,125 have posted prices (the rest price at application — normal for land banks). The median posted price is $3,080. For scale, that's about one-half of one percent of the median US home price.
The price histogram barely has a right tail:
| Priced at or under | Listings | Share of priced |
|---|---|---|
| $1 | 49 | 0.1% |
| $1,000 | 4,679 | 14% |
| $5,000 | 26,867 | 79% |
| $10,000 | 30,874 | 90% |
Nine in ten priced land bank listings ask $10,000 or less. The cheapest-houses pillar explains why this market exists; this report is what it looks like right now.
2. Five markets hold two-thirds of the inventory
| Market | Listings | Median posted price |
|---|---|---|
| Cleveland Land Bank, OH | 15,576 | $3,213 |
| Genesee County (Flint), MI | 13,975 | — mostly priced at application |
| Shelby County (Memphis), TN | 12,898 | $2,500 |
| St. Louis LRA, MO | 9,463 | priced at application |
| Chicago city lots, IL | 6,558 | priced at application |
Together: 58,470 listings — 67% of everything we track. The land bank market is not evenly spread; it concentrates where tax foreclosure concentrated. State by state, Ohio leads with 22,232 listings, then Michigan (20,724), Tennessee (12,898), Missouri (12,054), and Illinois (8,689).
3. The houses: 8,658 structures, median $4,000
Vacant lots dominate, but 8,658 listings are flagged as having a structure — actual buildings. Among the 2,409 of those with posted prices:
- Median asking price: $4,000
- 1,792 (74%) list under $10,000
- 2,081 (86%) list under $25,000
These are the "abandoned houses for sale" people search for — as-is, renovation expected, often with deed conditions. Our abandoned houses guide covers how to evaluate them, and financing a land bank home covers paying for the renovation that follows.
4. The $1 club is real — and conditional
49 listings are priced at $1 or less right now. Louisville's land bank alone posts dozens of side lots at a dollar. As we covered in are $1 houses real?, nominal pricing is a program design, not a fire sale: the buyer usually must own the property next door, maintain the lot, or commit to a plan. Free-and-clear $1 houses for strangers remain a myth; $1 lots for neighbors are policy.
5. Posted prices are the exception, not the rule
Only 39% of listings carry a posted price. The other 61% — including giants like St. Louis LRA, Chicago, Philadelphia, and most of Michigan — price during the application. That's the single biggest difference between shopping land banks and shopping the MLS, and it splits the market into two buyer experiences:
- Sticker markets (Cleveland, Memphis, Kansas City, Baton Rouge): screen by price from your couch, then apply.
- Application markets (St. Louis, Chicago, Birmingham, most of Georgia): pick the parcel, propose, and the program sets the number.
The how-to-buy guide walks the process for both.
Browse the data yourself
Every number above comes from the live inventory on our map — refreshed nightly from official land bank feeds, filterable by price, structure, and program. If you want the next report in your inbox when the data shifts, set a free email alert for your market.
Methodology: counts are active listings aggregated from 51 official land bank sources on July 4, 2026. Medians are computed over listings with posted prices only. Structure counts rely on source-provided flags and undercount markets that don't publish building data.