Kevin Sears President | Official website
U.S. households earning $75,000 annually can afford only 21.2% of home listings as of March 2025, a slight increase from the previous year's 20.8%, according to the National Association of Realtors and Realtor.com 2025 Housing Affordability & Supply report. The report highlights the ongoing housing affordability gap in the nation.
The analysis examines affordable home shortages across various income levels within the current U.S. housing market, offering an income-specific view of housing affordability based on standard lending criteria.
While for-sale housing inventory rose nearly 20% nationwide in March 2025 compared to a year earlier, it remains below pre-pandemic levels. "The housing market is at a turning point," said Nadia Evangelou, NAR senior economist and director of real estate research. "More homes are hitting the market, and it's encouraging to see the greatest housing-supply gains among middle-income home buyers."
Households earning $75,000 experienced a minor improvement in access to home listings between March 2024 and March 2025 but still have less than half the access they had before the pandemic when nearly 49% of listings were accessible. A balanced market would require these buyers to access 48.1% of listings, necessitating almost 416,000 more listings priced at or below $255,000.
Similarly, households earning $100,000 can currently afford 37.1% of home listings, slightly up from last year's figure but significantly lower than their pre-pandemic capacity to afford 64.7%. This group faces a shortage of about 364,000 home listings priced under $340,000.
Low-income households earning $50,000 annually can afford only 8.7% of home listings today, down from last year's figure. These households represent one-third of all households and should be able to buy one-in-three listings in a balanced market.
Higher-income households have better access to the housing market; those earning $250,000 or more can afford at least 80% of home listings.
"Shoppers see more homes for sale today than one year ago," said Danielle Hale, Realtor.com chief economist. However, she noted that there is still a lack of affordable homes for low- and moderate-income households.
As of March 2025, areas classified as "Areas Getting Closer to Balance" constitute about 30% of the largest metropolitan areas where affordable homes' availability improved significantly over the past year.
"For many first-time home buyers," Evangelou added that navigating today's market feels like window shopping due to listing prices not matching their budgets.
Forty-four percent of large metropolitan areas are "Areas Stuck in the Middle," with misaligned supply and demand but not at crisis levels yet. Seattle and Washington D.C., among others, saw moderate increases in affordable homes' share over the past year but still face significant affordability gaps requiring high incomes just to afford half available homes.
In contrast, Austin; Salt Lake City; Denver; and notably San Francisco made substantial progress with increased shares in affordable listings surpassing pre-pandemic levels.
"Even in high-cost areas like San Francisco," Evangelou explained that improvement is evident as current for-sale home listings align better with buyer incomes compared to pre-COVID-19 levels—a reminder that progress is possible despite remaining imbalances.
Twenty-six percent are "Areas Falling Further Behind," where affordability gaps continue widening due either declining availability or staying significantly below balanced-market thresholds highlighting troubling trends particularly affecting Los Angeles; Oxnard; San Diego; New York City; Spokane among others despite some improvements since last year still facing severe shortages especially regarding affordable options even amid strong local economies hosting millions residents each suffering disproportionately from persistent imbalance conditions overall statewide perspective Iowa Ohio Indiana Illinois West Virginia lead offering relatively balanced conditions most cases allowing median earners purchase substantial portion available properties although improving additional inventory Montana Idaho California Massachusetts Hawaii remain needing plentiful supplies Delaware Utah Colorado Florida Arizona showed most improvement significant gains District Columbia alone improved relative pre-pandemic
