Affordable properties remain elusive, per the most recent findings from ATTOM Data. For the firm’s Q3 2025 U.S. Home Affordability Report, it surveyed 580 U.S. counties (with a population of at least 100,000 and at least 50 home sales during the quarter), comparing income to homeownership expenses to find that the median-priced single-family home, or condo, is less affordable than the historical average in 99% of U.S. counties.
This rate is unchanged from 2024, but the median price has climbed up even higher to $375,000, which is 2% higher than Q2 2025 and 4.8% higher than the previous year.
“The drop in mortgage rates will help some buyers keep pace with the rising cost of homes,” said ATTOM CEO Rob Barber in a statement. “But the more favorable loan rates could also enable prices to keep rising and further extend this two-and-a-half-year streak we’re in of homes being less affordable to the typical resident of an area than they historically have been.”
Of the 580 counties surveyed, median home prices rose in about 75% of them, and affordability has worsened in 44.7% since last fiscal quarter. For counties with a population of more than 1 million, the largest annual increases in median prices were in Cuyahoga County, Ohio (up 13%); Fulton County, Georgia (11%); Honolulu County, Hawaii (11%); Suffolk County, New York (7%); and Allegheny County, Pennsylvania (7%).
Home price growth has outpaced wage growth as well; since 2020, median prices have gone up 58%, while typical wages (as of Q1 2025, the latest data) have only increased 28%. The median price of a home rose faster than a typical wage in about 50% of counties during Q3 2025, compared to about 35% in Q2 2025.
The largest counties where home values surpassed wage growth in Q3 2025 were Cook County, Illinois; Kings County, New York; Bexar County, Texas; Wayne County, Michigan; and Middlesex County, Massachusetts.
In some counties, wages did grow more than high prices, though. The largest counties where wages grew more than home prices this quarter were Los Angeles County, California; Harris County, Texas; Maricopa County, Arizona; San Diego County, California; and Orange County, California.
The typical monthly cost of homeownership expenses (i.e., monthly mortgage payments, mortgage insurance, homeowners insurance, property taxes, etc.) was found to be $2,123 in Q3 2025, essentially unchanged from the previous quarter but 6% higher than last year.
These expenses were found to consume 33.3% of a typical American’s wages during Q3 2025, up from 32.2% the year prior. In 34% of counties, home expenses on a median-priced home consumed 43% or more of typical wages, which is considered “seriously unaffordable.”
That said, ATTOM did still acknowledge that dropping mortgage rates are “good news for prospective homebuyers.” As noted in the report, the 30-year mortgage rate has hit 6.26%, and the recent 25 basis point interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve could offer further downward pressure.
The report uses 28% of a homeowner’s pay as the maximum debt-to-income ratio for homeownership to be affordable. In 79% of counties, homeownership expenses were higher than 28% of a typical resident’s wages.
The most populated counties where expenses for a median home were lower than 28% of typical wages (meaning more affordable) were typically found in the Midwest: Cuyahoga County, Ohio (23.1%); Harris County, Texas (23%); Allegheny County, Pennsylvania (22.4%); Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania (20.1%); and Wayne County, Michigan (17.1%).
Likewise, Midwest counties were generally the ones with the lowest annual income requirements to afford homeownership: Cambria County, Pennsylvania ($17,695 annual income); Robeson County, North Carolina ($29,520); Macon County, Illinois ($34,216); Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania ($35,693); and Mercer County, Pennsylvania ($35,892).
Conversely, of the 25 counties with the highest annual income requirements, 13 were located in California and six were found in New York. The five counties with the highest annual income requirements were San Mateo County, California ($399,827); New York County, New York ($366,091); Santa Clara County, New York ($362,212); Marin County, California ($340,989); and San Francisco County, California ($310,718).
California and New York were also home to the counties where homeownership expenses ate up the highest percentage of a typical resident’s wages: Kings County (113% of the typical resident’s wages); Santa Cruz County, California (111.8%); Marin County, California (101.3%); Monterey County, California (96.8%); and Maui County, Hawaii (94%).
Overall, the counties with populations of 1 million-plus with the lowest affordability index scores (less than 100, meaning less affordable than the historical average) were Wayne County, Michigan (affordability index of 61); Oakland County, Michigan (affordability index of 64); Fulton County, Georgia (affordability index of 64); Cuyahoga County, Ohio (affordability index of 66); and Franklin County (affordability index of 66).
For the full ATTOM report, click here.
