Æðµã´«Ã½

Æðµã´«Ã½ has updated its housing affordability graph for 2025, and the latest data show that 76.4 million households — 57% out of a total of 134.3 million — are unable to afford a $300,000 home.

The graph is based on conventional underwriting standards that assume the cost of a mortgage, property taxes and property insurance should not exceed 28% of household income. Based on this methodology, Æðµã´«Ã½ economists have calculated how many households have enough income to afford a home at various price thresholds.

For example, the minimum income required to purchase a $200,000 home with a mortgage rate of 6.5% is $61,487. At the base of the graph are 52.87 million U.S. households with insufficient incomes (below $61,487) to be able to afford a $200,000 home.

The graph’s second step consists of 23.53 million with enough income to afford a top price somewhere between $200,000 and $300,000. Adding up the bottom two rungs shows that there are 76.4 million households who cannot afford a $300,000 home.

The nationwide median price of a new single-family home is $459,826, meaning half of all new homes sold in the U.S. cost more than this figure and half cost less. A total of 100.6 million households — roughly 75% of all U.S. households — cannot afford this median-priced new home based on a mortgage rate of 6.5%.

The top of the graph shows that 6.92 million households (adding up the top three rungs) have enough income to buy a $1 million home, and 1.5 million even have enough for a home priced above $2 million. But market analysts should never focus on this to the exclusion of the wider steps that support the graph’s base.

This graph clearly illustrates the nation’s housing affordability crisis. Æðµã´«Ã½ has put out a 10-point plan to address this urgent issue. The plan outlines initiatives that can be taken at the local, state and federal levels to address the root of the problem — impediments to increasing the nation’s housing supply.

See more details and read the full study here.