Report Illustrates How Sharply Home Costs Have Risen

Anxiety over the US housing market’s surging prices is summed up succinctly in a new report from Bankrate. They write that since 2020, the number of households needing to earn six figures to afford a home has skyrocketed from seven states and territories to 23 today. The five highest:

1. California: $197,057
2. Hawaii: $185,829
3. Washington, DC: $167,871
4. Massachusetts: $162,471
5. Washington: $156,814

• Other 18: Per CNN, the 18 other states requiring six-figure incomes to afford homes were: Colorado ($152,229), New Jersey ($152,186), New York ($148,286), Utah ($133,886), Rhode Island ($132,343), Montana ($131,357), New Hampshire ($130,329), Oregon ($129,129), Connecticut ($119,614), Florida ($114,771), Idaho ($114,386), Vermont ($114,471), Nevada ($111,557), Arizona ($110,271), Maryland ($108,257), Virginia ($106,971), Maine ($102,557), and Texas ($100,629).
• What’s ‘affordable’ mean? Bankrate’s parameters on affordability assume that home buyers pony up a 20% down payment and take out a 30-year fixed rate mortgage, and that those mortgage payments won’t exceed 28% of their income. Bankrate Housing Market Analyst Jeff Ostrowski said finding an affordable home was the key problem for most. “Home values are near record highs, and if you want a house, you have little choice but to pay a high price.”
• Do Americans earn enough to buy? While incomes vary greatly by state, according to the US Census Bureau, the median household income of Americans in 2022 was $74,580, a 2.3% decline from 2021’s estimated $76,330.
• Most affordable: The states with the lowest income needed to afford homes are Mississippi, $63,043; Ohio, $64,071; Arkansas, $64,714; Indiana, $65,143; Kentucky, $65,186. In general, homes in the Sun Belt and Rust Belt were most affordable.

(Big changes to how much realtors get paid could make things cheaper for home buyers.)