The National Association of Realtors (NAR) and Realtor.com 2025 Housing Affordability & Supply report shows that the nation’s housing affordability gap still exists, with households making $75,000 annually only able to afford 21.2% of home listings as of March 2025, up slightly from 20.8% the year before and the largest gain of any income group.
The paper examines the present U.S. housing market’s scarcity of reasonably priced homes for a range of income levels. By analyzing what homebuyers at different income levels can afford based on normal loan criteria, it offers a real-time, income-specific snapshot of housing affordability.
Although this growth represents progress, the nationwide inventory of for-sale homes rose by about 20% in March 2025 compared to the same month the previous year.
“The housing market is at a turning point,” said Nadia Evangelou, NAR Senior Economist and Director of Real Estate Research. “More homes are hitting the market, and it’s encouraging to see the greatest housing-supply gains among middle-income home buyers.”
Breaking Down the In’s & Out’s
Although the accessibility of home listings improved slightly for households making $75,000 annually between March 2025 (21.2%) and March 2024 (20.8%), the biggest increase of any income group, they still have less than half of the affordable home accessibility that they had prior to the pandemic, when nearly 49% of listings were accessible. These homebuyers would require access to 48.1% of listings in a balanced housing market, when listings are in line with what households at different income levels can afford. The market requires around 416,000 more listings priced at or below $255,000 in order to hit that level.
Only 8.7% of homes listed today are within the reach of a household making $50,000 per year, compared to 9.4% a year ago. In a balanced housing market, one in three listings should be within the means of these low-income households, which make up one in three households. A maximum price of $170,000 and roughly 367,000 postings are essential for balance.
Higher-income households, on the other hand, have almost complete access to the housing market. At least 80 percent of the homes listed are within the reach of homebuyers with incomes of $250,000 or more.
“Shoppers see more homes for sale today than one year ago, and encouragingly, many of these homes have been added at moderate income price points,” said Danielle Hale, Chief Economist at Realtor.com. “But as this report shows, we still don’t have an abundance of homes that are affordable to low- and moderate-income households, and the progress that we’ve seen is not happening everywhere. It’s been concentrated in the Midwest and the South.”
To read more, click here.
