WASHINGTON : You need to earn roughly $117,000 a year to afford a median-priced U.S. home, according to a recent Redfin report.
Why it matters: That marks a new high in data going back to 2012 and is $33,000 more than the median household income in the U.S., which is around $84,000, per Redfin’s analysis.
Catch up quick: Elevated mortgage rates and record prices are shutting many homebuyers out of the market.
- The median U.S. home price was nearly $430,000 last year, according to Redfin.
- Mortgage rates topped 7% for the first time since May 2024, per Freddie Mac data out Thursday.
The fine print: Redfin’s data assumes a homebuyer spends no more than 30% of their income on monthly mortgage payments.
The bottom line: “Affordability improved ever so slightly this year because wage growth outpaced the growth in monthly housing payments,” Redfin senior economist Elijah de la Campa said in the report.
- But for many, “buying a home remains more out of reach than ever and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon.”
Courtesy: (Axios)
