Here's how much Americans need to earn to afford a typical home

SALT LAKE CITY \u2014 It actually takes slightly less income to buy a median-priced home in the United States than a year ago, a new analysis shows.For the 12 months ending in June, $109,796 in earnings was needed to be able to afford a typical property for sale, according to the online real estate brokerage Redfin. That's a dip of 0.5% from the record set in June 2025 of $110,382."Home buying affordability is essentially flat from a year ago," Redfin declared, noting that though monthly housing costs have gone up thanks to a 2.2% boost in home prices, incomes are also higher.Over the past year, the median annual income in the U.S. went up to $87,599, from $84,257.But there's still a substantial difference of nearly $22,200 between the amount of income needed to keep monthly house payments below the recommended 30% of earnings and how much the typical household makes.Last year the gap was higher, at $26,125. And two years ago, it was more than $28,800. Before that, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic home buying frenzy and then the rapid rise of mortgage rates from record lows put home buying out of reach for many Americans.The share of homes considered affordable to the typical buyer was about half prior to the pandemic era, dropping to nearly just a quarter before heading up again. Now, Redfin said more than a third, 34.2%, of listings meet that mark, up from 30.5% a year earlier.Would-be homeowners are still being left behind."The earnings needed to buy a house have stabilized after several years of deterioration, but that doesn't mean homes are affordable to the average American," Redfin senior economist Yingqi Xu said in a post this week."There's still a double-digit gap between what the typical household earns and what they need to comfortably buy a home, leaving many prospective first-time buyers stalled on the sidelines," Xu said.Affordability is described as improving in 24 of the 46 most populous metro areas (none are in Utah) in the Redfin analysis. A typical household made more than is needed to afford a home in only three of those metro areas nationwide, St. Louis, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh.For the analysis, Redfin looked at median home prices, prevailing mortgage rates and property tax payments, and assumes a 15% down payment.