ShareFind out how many of the homes which are currently listed for sale you can afford to buy based on your income.
A typical household earning about $51,000[1] can afford to buy 36% of homes for sales in the United States, according to the REALTORS® Affordability Distribution Curve and Score (RADCS). The tool below, updated with August 2018 data, lets you find out what share of homes, which are currently listed for sale, you can afford to buy in the 100 largest metro areas based on your income.
Select a range that best describes the income that you earn. Hover over the map to see the percentage of homes which are currently listed for sale that you can afford to buy.
The NAR Research Group and REALTOR.COM have partnered to conduct an analysis of affordability at different income levels for all active inventory on the market. The result of this analysis, the RADCS, shows that a household needs to earn at least $65,000 to afford more than half of the active housing inventory. Currently, the typical household, earning $51,000 can afford to buy 36 percent of homes for sale. Compared to a year earlier, housing affordability across the United States declined in August. The main reason for the decline is that housing inventory remains very low, causing affordability to weaken in most areas of the country.
Among the 100 largest metro areas, Los Angeles-Long Beach et al., CA was the least affordable metro area in August followed by San Diego-Carlsbad, CA and Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA. In these metro areas, a household earning about $100,000 can barely afford to buy on average 12 percent of homes currently listed for sale. In contrast, the same household can afford to buy on average more than 90 percent of the housing inventory in Youngstown-Warren et al., OH-PA, Dayton, OH and Toledo, OH.
For more information, view the Realtors® Affordability Distribution Curve and Score data page.
[1] Based on Nielsen’s income distribution data