Home prices have risen by 42% since 2020, with interest rates and borrowing costs jumping as well. As a result, homebuyers need to earn 80% more than they did in 2020 in order to comfortably afford housing, a new Zillow analysis found. With median salaries only rising by 23% during that period, homes are becoming increasingly unaffordable for potential homebuyers.
Zillow reported that in 2020, a household with an income of $59,000 per year could afford a home priced at around $240,815. This was less than the median income of $66,000. Now, households need an income of $106,000 in order to afford a median-priced home of $342,941.
“Incomes needed to purchase a home are just much, much higher than the typical household income,” Zillow chief economist Orphe Divounguy observed. Furthermore, mortgage rates for a typical US home have nearly doubled over the past four years.