The latest quarterly U.S. Home Affordability Report from ATTOM Data found that affordability continued to worsen across the U.S. in Q4 2024—median-sized homes are now less affordable than the historical average in 98% of the report’s surveyed counties.
The report cross-referenced median home price data from ATTOM itself with wage data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in 566 counties. Chosen counties had a population of at least 100,000 and at least 50 recorded single-family home or condo sales in Q4. It then calculated affordability based on the percentage of wages needed to pay a median home price (with a 30-year mortgage rate and 20% down payment) and other homeowning expenses (property taxes, insurance, etc.).
Prices rising more than wages and mortgage rates staying over 6% are listed as key factors maintaining historic high unaffordability. In 75.8% of the surveyed counties, year-over-year price changes outpaced annualized growth in weekly wages this quarter.
In a statement, ATTOM CEO Rob Barber noted the “stress” of homebuying due to this unaffordability, despite the market generating “great profits for most homesellers.”
“Average workers now must shell out a larger portion of their wages for major homeownership expenses than at any time since right before the housing market tanked in the late 2000s,” said Barber. “At some point, something’s got to give, or a growing number of buyers will have no choice but to toss in the towel and wait for homeownership to become more affordable. But we clearly are not there yet.”
In Q4 2024, the national median home price climbed to $364,750 (2.1% higher than Q3 2024 and 11.4% higher than Q4 2023). This and mortgage rates remaining over 6% has kept up a “three-year pattern,” the report states, of high unaffordability.
In Q4 2024, the wage needed to afford a median-priced home is $89,649, which is 21.3% higher than the current average national wage ($73,918). Median home price expenses (mortgage, insurance and taxes) were also found to consume 34% of the average national wage, compared to 32.5% in Q3 2024. In 325 of the surveyed counties (57%), a wage of more than $75,000 is needed to pay for major costs on a home—only 13.6% of the surveyed counties report average wages of more than $75,000, according to the report.
Regional breakdown of home affordability
The report includes a “heat map” of the U.S. that displays current county-by-county affordability data curated by ATTOM.
Counties with the largest populations that were also deemed unaffordable (based on a 28% front-end debt-income-ratio) were found to be primarily in the West, with one exception:
- Los Angeles County, California
- Maricopa County, Arizona (which includes Phoenix)
- San Diego County, California
- Orange County, California
- Miami-Dade County, Florida
On the other hand, the most affordable populous counties were largely major Midwest metro areas:
- Cook County, Illinois (Chicago)
- Harris County, Texas (Houston)
- Wayne County, Michigan (Detroit)
- Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
- Cuyahoga County, Ohio (Cleveland)
A total of 47 of the surveyed counties had a population of at least 1 million. The largest median home price increases in this category were not confined to a single region:
- Bronx County, New York (up 13.3% annually in Q4 2024)
- Wayne County, Michigan (up 12.9%)
- Cook County, Illinois (up 12.1%)
- Suffolk County, New York (11.5%)
- Santa Clara County, California (up 11%)
Two of the largest increases were in counties also considered the most affordable populous ones.
In Q4 2024, the only 1 million and higher population counties that saw annual price decreases were in the New York City metro area. Namely, New York County (Manhattan), where median prices were down 3.3%, and Kings County (Brooklyn), where median prices were down 1%.
The report notes that while median home prices increased from Q4 2023 in 503 of the surveyed counties (89% of them), they only increased in 210 counties (37%) compared to last quarter.
“That is a sign that the latest jump in national median price may be driven more by larger numbers of sales in markets with bigger increases,” the report concluded.
For the full ATTOM Home Affordability report, click here.
