Property data curator ATTOM released its second quarter 2025 U.S. Home Affordability Report, which showed that in 99 percent of counties with sufficient data to analyze, median-priced single-family homes and condos were less affordable than historical averages, meaning that a median-priced home required a higher percentage of the owner’s wages.
Maintaining a median-priced home in the second quarter would have cost 33.7 percent of the average homeowner’s annual income, up from 32 percent from the first quarter This amount is also above the 28 percent often recommended by lenders.
In the first quarter, the median home price was $350,275, a slight dip from $355,000 in the fourth quarter of 2024. In the second quarter of 2025, however, the price increased to $369,000. The average 30-year fixed mortgage remained stable at 6.82 percent.
“The squeeze is really on for would-be buyers as we go into the summer, which is usually when the housing market is most active,” ATTOM CEO Rob Barber said. “Prices just continue to rise and there’s been no relief on mortgage rates. Meanwhile, typical wages are barely increasing from quarter-to-quarter.”
The challenge current homeowners and prospective buyers face is the disparity between housing costs and annual income. The median home price has increased 55.7 percent since the first quarter of 2020. The average wage has only increased 26.6 percent in that time.
Median home prices have risen 66 percent year-over-year for the 579 counties analyzed, the report stated. Among the 48 counties with populations over 1 million, the largest year-over-year increases in median home prices include Bronx County, N.Y. (up 14 percent); Suffolk County, N.Y. (up 6 percent); Queens County, N.Y. (up 6 percent); Philadelphia County, Pa. (up 6 percent); and Hennepin County, Minn. (up 5 percent).
The largest year-over-year decreases in median home prices for the same category include Contra Costa County, Calif. (down 5 percent); Travis County, Texas (down 4 percent); Alameda County, Calif. (down 3 percent); New York County, N.Y. (down 3 percent); and Hillsborough County, Fla. (down 3 percent).
Of the 579 counties analyzed in the second quarter, 35 percent saw the cost of a median-priced home increase faster than the average wage, down from 47 percent in the first quarter. The largest counties where home prices outpaced wage growth included Queens County, N.Y.; Broward County, Fla.; Philadelphia County, Pa.; Bronx County, N.Y.; and Oakland County, Mich.
The largest counties where wages grew faster than home prices included Los Angeles County, Calif.; Cook County, Ill.; Harris County, Texas; Maricopa County, Ariz.; and San Diego County, Calif.
In 83 percent of counties, the portion of average wages required to cover major expenses on median-prices single-family homes and condos increased quarter-over-quarter, up annually in 36 percent of the counties.
In the second quarter, homeownership expenses accounted for 34 percent of the average wage, up from 32 percent in the previous quarter but down from 34 percent year-over-year.
California led the most unaffordable counties, the report stated. The counties where home purchase expenses accounted for the largest share of income include Marin County, Calif. (119.7 percent of typical wages); Santa Cruz County, Calif. (116.1 percent of typical wages); Maui County, Hawaii (111.5 percent of typical wages); Kings County, N.Y. (109 percent of typical wages); and San Luis Obispo County, Calif. (99.3 percent of typical wages).
In order to keep homeownership expenses under the 28 percent of the recommended wages guideline, purchasing the national median-priced home in the second quarter of 2025 would have required an annual income of at least $91,006.