How Much Does It Cost to Live Near the Best Hospital in Your City?

The Cost of Living Next to the Best Hospitals Across U.S. Cities

Living next door to a city’s leading hospital can push home prices sharply up in some markets but drive them down in others.

Highest premiums

• Memphis, TN – Homes near Baptist Memorial cost 182% higher than the citywide average, which is about $414,000.
• Detroit, MI – Buyers pay 152% extra to live near Henry Ford Hospital.
• Tampa, FL – Proximity to Tampa General comes with a 138% markup.
  
  

Biggest discounts

• Augusta, GA – Living near Piedmont Augusta Hospital costs 61% less, an about $67,000 difference.
• Akron, OH – A 39% drop around Cleveland Clinic Akron General.
• Austin, TX – Homes by St. David's Medical Center average 33% below the city norm.
• Value standouts – Greensboro, Des Moines and Omaha each offer savings of 20% or more.

Arkansas spotlight

House-hunters in Little Rock get the best of both worlds: homes in the ZIP code of UAMS Medical Center average just 5% above the city median, around $222,000. For students, healthcare professionals and families, that’s a modest premium for first-rate care minutes from home, far below the national average 26% markup.

Cities With the Most Affordable Home Values Near the Best-Rated Hospital

Across the 100 largest U.S. cities, the average home value near the best-rated hospital is $492,225, but in several cities, residents pay far less to live just steps away from elite healthcare facilities.

Augusta, Georgia, tops the list of affordability, where homes near Piedmont Augusta Hospital are valued at just $67,228, an extraordinary deal for buyers seeking proximity to a high-performing hospital. In Akron, Ohio, home values near Cleveland Clinic Akron General average just over $80,000, and in Des Moines, Iowa, homes close to MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center come in at $152,489.

Affordable healthcare access isn’t limited to the Midwest and South. Northeastern cities like Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Hartford, Connecticut, also offer below-average home prices near their top hospitals, with homes valued at $152,605 and $167,374, respectively. Meanwhile, cities such as Greensboro, North Carolina, Syracuse, New York, and Toledo, Ohio, provide additional options for budget-conscious buyers looking to live close to the best-rated healthcare providers in town.

For residents of Little Rock, Arkansas, homes near the city’s highest-ranked hospital are also relatively affordable. At $221,562, they fall well below the national ZIP code average near top hospitals, securing the city a spot among the 20 most affordable markets in this study.

The Cost of Living Near Some of the Best Hospitals in the U.S.

Not all hospitals are created equal, and neither are the neighborhoods surrounding them. To understand the real estate implications of living near America’s most acclaimed medical institutions, we narrowed our study to hospitals that not only rank at the top within their city but also appear on U.S. News & World Report’s national list of Best Hospitals. These elite facilities often attract top medical talent and offer cutting-edge treatment, but can they also come with a substantial home value premium?

In San Diego, California, for instance, living near UC San Diego Health means paying nearly double the city’s average home price, with a staggering 124% increase. Similar trends can be seen in Houston, Texas, where homes near Houston Methodist Hospital are 88% more expensive, and in Los Angeles, where living near Cedars-Sinai drives up home values by more than 82%. Even in more affordable housing markets like Cleveland, Ohio, the Cleveland Clinic’s ZIP code commands a 78% premium over the city average.

However, not every top hospital inflates home prices. In Philadelphia, homes near the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Presbyterian Medical Center are actually 13% less expensive than the city average. In New York City, homebuyers near Mount Sinai Hospital enjoy a slight discount of nearly 13%. Cities like Chicago and Boston show modest increases—around 6% to 14%—while San Francisco and Phoenix reflect steeper premiums due to their already high-cost housing markets.