A whopping majority of homes on the market are completely unaffordable: report
It’s no wonder buyers are burned out. The typical American household is now priced out of most homes for sale.
A new Bankrate analysis has found that more than 75% of listings nationwide are out of financial reach for a median-income family, despite annual earnings hovering just under $80,000.
To swing a median-priced home in 2025, buyers now need to earn roughly $113,000 a year, which is a gap that’s turning the starter-home dream into a math problem few can solve.
In some cities, it’s not just tough — it’s laughably distant.
Miami and Los Angeles offer so few affordable listings that a median-income household would be lucky to find even one option out of a couple hundred.
Meanwhile, a handful of metros, mostly in the Rust Belt and South, are the rare bright spots.
In Pittsburgh and St. Louis, for example, almost half the market remains within reach.
Rising prices, stubborn mortgage rates and thin inventory is driving the crunch and squeezing out everyday buyers.
“For many families, the challenge isn’t just high home prices and elevated mortgage rates. It’s that housing shortages across the country have left them with far fewer homes they can afford,” Alex Gailey, a data analyst at Bankrate, said.
And when options disappear, she added, homeownership starts to feel like something reserved for the lucky.
“When only a sliver of the market is affordable to the typical household, homeownership starts to feel less like a milestone and more like a luxury. It’s no surprise that one in six aspiring homeowners have walked away in the last five years.”
Still, Gailey says the picture changes dramatically depending on where you live.
“Some large cities still give median-income households a path to buying a home, while others have become increasingly difficult to break into.”
Her advice is to get preapproved early, stick to a real budget, expand your search radius and use first-time buyer programs if eligible.
