Americans needed an annual income of $109,796 to afford a typical U.S. home in June, just 0.5% below the record set a year earlier.
The typical household earned about $22,200 less than that threshold, though the gap narrowed as incomes grew faster than housing costs.
Only 34.2% of listings were affordable to a median-income household, up from 30.5% a year earlier but far below pre-2022 levels.
U.S. housing affordability showed only modest improvement in June, with the income needed to purchase a typical home remaining close to a record high, according to a new Redfin analysis.
Buyers needed to earn $109,796 a year to afford the median-priced home, down 0.5% from the record $110,382 required in June 2025. Redfin defines a home as affordable when estimated monthly housing payments consume no more than 30% of household income.
The brokerage based its calculation on median sale prices, prevailing mortgage rates, and property taxes, assuming a 15% down payment. The figures do not necessarily reflect the full costs faced by individual buyers, including insurance, maintenance, and homeowners-association fees.
Earnings and housing costs in lockstep
Affordability was largely unchanged because earnings and housing costs increased at similar rates. The median U.S. sale price rose 2.2% from a year earlier, while mortgage rates remained in the mid-6% range. Redfin estimated median household income at $87,599, up 4%.
That left the typical household $22,197 short of the income needed to comfortably buy a home. The deficit has nevertheless narrowed from $26,125 one year earlier and $28,834 two years earlier.
A median-income buyer would have needed to devote 37.6% of earnings to the typical home in June, down from 39.3% a year earlier but still above Redfin’s 30% affordability benchmark.
The share of listings within reach also improved. Redfin estimated that 34.2% of homes for sale were affordable to a household earning the median income, compared with 30.5% a year earlier. Before mortgage rates surged in 2022, more than half of listings were typically affordable.
Regional results
Regional results were mixed. The required income declined in 24 of the 46 metropolitan areas analyzed. Seattle recorded the largest decrease, falling 7.4% to $221,831, followed by San Jose, down 6.5% to $423,840, and Portland, Oregon, down 4.5% to $153,844.
Those declines did not necessarily make the markets affordable to local residents. In San Jose, for example, the estimated median household income of $176,401 remained about $250,000 below the amount needed to buy the typical home.
Only St. Louis, Indianapolis, and Pittsburgh had median household incomes exceeding the amount required to afford a local median-priced home, Redfin found.
Some active markets moved in the opposite direction. The required income rose 6.3% in Pittsburgh to $82,816, the largest increase among the metros studied. It climbed 6.2% in San Francisco to $453,205 — the highest threshold in the country — and increased 5.6% in West Palm Beach, Florida, to $146,404.
Entry-level homes offered somewhat greater relief. Buyers needed to earn $70,693 to afford a typical starter home, 1.5% less than a year earlier.
Redfin said affordability could improve slightly through the end of 2026, but the outlook remains sensitive to mortgage rates, inflation, energy prices, and Federal Reserve policy. Despite the narrowing income gap and stronger negotiating conditions in some markets, the company’s findings indicate that the typical home remains beyond the conventional affordability limit for the average American household.