HOME AFFORDABILITY REMAINS STRAINED AS MORTGAGE RATES RISE

Homes in 98 percent of counties were less affordable in third quarter 2026 than historical norms;

IRVINE, Calif., Oct. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- ATTOM, the leading provider of property data, AI-powered intelligence, and real estate analytics solutions, today released its latest U.S. Home Affordability Report showing that homes were less affordable than historical averages in 98 percent of counties with sufficient data to analyze for the third quarter of 2026.

In 570 of the 583 counties with sufficient data to analyze, major monthly expenses for median-priced single-family homes and condos exceeded their historical norms.

The national median home sales price was 1 percent lower in the third quarter than in the second quarter of 2026 and 2 percent lower than at the same time last year. However, at the end of the quarter, the 7.3 percent 30-year-fixed mortgage rate and 6.6 percent 15-year fixed mortgage rate were approaching highs last seen in 2023 and the consumer price index, a measure of inflation, rose throughout the third quarter.

"Affordability remained a challenge in the third quarter, even as some of the underlying factors moved in a favorable direction," said Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM. "Home prices declined nationally and wage growth outpaced price growth in many counties, but those gains were not enough to meaningfully improve affordability across much of the country."

ATTOM determines affordability for average wage earners by calculating the amount of income needed to meet major monthly home ownership expenses—including mortgage payments, mortgage insurance, property taxes and homeowner's insurance—on a median-priced single-family home and condo, assuming a 20 percent down payment and a 28 percent maximum "front-end" debt-to-income ratio. That required income is measured against annualized average weekly wage data from the BLS (see full methodology below).

In 80.1 percent (467) of the 583 counties included in the analysis, major monthly home expenses exceeded the typical county resident's wages.

Among the most populous counties analyzed, those considered unaffordable under the 28 percent affordability guideline were Los Angeles County, CA (typical ownership expenses consumed 69.9 percent of typical wages); Cook County, IL (30.2 percent of typical wages); Maricopa County, AZ (37 percent of typical wages); San Diego County, CA (69.6 percent of typical wages); and Orange County, CA (92.6 percent of typical wages).

The largest counties where homeownership was affordable for the typical resident in the third quarter were Harris County, TX (20.7 percent of typical wages); Dallas County, TX (24.3 percent of typical wages); Bexar County, TX (27.2 percent of typical wages); Wayne County, MI (17.9 percent of typical wages); and Philadelphia County, PA (20.2 percent of typical wages).

Median home prices increase in Texas
In the third quarter of 2026, the national median home sales price was $368,000, down from $370,000 the previous quarter and $375,000 at the same time last year.

That decline was not evenly distributed, however. Median home prices rose year-over-year in 64.3 percent (375) of the 583 counties in ATTOM's analysis. Counties were included in the report if they had populations of at least 100,000 and at least 50 single-family and condo sales in the third quarter of 2026.

Among counties with populations over 1 million, the largest year-over-year increases in median home prices were in Travis County, TX (up 105 percent); Dallas County, TX (up 91 percent); Bexar County, TX (up 87 percent); Collin County, TX (up 72 percent); and Harris County, TX (up 62 percent).

Of those most populous counties, the largest annual declines in home prices were in Middlesex County, MA (down 11 percent); Orange County, FL (down 10 percent); Duval County, FL (down 8 percent); Miami-Dade County, FL (down 5 percent); and Clark County, NV (down 5 percent).

Wage growth outpaced home prices in a majority of counties
Typical wages grew at a greater rate than third-quarter home prices in 58.9 percent (343) of the 583 counties in ATTOM's analysis.

The most populous counties where home prices grew faster than wages were Cook County, IL; Harris County, TX; Dallas County, TX; Queens County, TX; and San Bernardino County, CA.

The largest counties where wage growth outpaced home prices were Los Angeles County, CA; Maricopa County, AZ; San Diego County, CA; Orange County, CA; and Miami-Dade County, FL.

Homes seriously unaffordable in nearly a third of counties
Monthly homeownership expenses on the nationally median priced home would have consumed 31.8 percent of the typical worker's wages.

In 30.9 percent (180) of the 583 counties analyzed, monthly expenses on a median-priced home would have consumed more than 43 percent of the typical resident's wages, a benchmark considered seriously unaffordable.

Home affordability remains strained across many U.S. markets
California accounted for 12 of the top 25 counties in the third quarter where home ownership expenses consumed the greatest share of the typical resident's wages. Six New York counties were among the top 25, three in New Jersey, and two in Hawaii.

The least affordable counties to purchase a home were Kings County, NY (expenses for a median-priced home consumed 114.1 percent of the typical resident's wages); Santa Cruz County, CA (105.5 percent of typical wages); Marin County, CA (102.4 percent of typical wages); Orange County, CA (92.6 percent of typical wages); and Monterey County, CA (91.8 percent of typical wages).

After Kings County and Orange County, the least affordable counties with populations over 1 million in the third quarter were Nassau County, NY (79.6 percent of wages); Queens County, NY (76.7 percent of wages); and Los Angeles County, CA (69.9 percent of wages).

The highest annual incomes needed to afford a median-priced home under the 28 percent affordability guideline were in New York County, NY ($409,992); San Mateo County, CA ($381,550); Santa Clara County, CA ($363,242); San Francisco County, CA ($361,805); and Marin County, CA ($348,321).

Compared with their own historical affordability levels, the counties with the lowest affordability index in the third quarter of 2026, were Cameron County, TX (affordability index of 23); Brazoria County, TX (affordability index of 31); Hidalgo County, TX (affordability index of 31); Potter County, TX (affordability index of 32); and Hunt County, TX (affordability index of 32).

Conclusion
ATTOM's third quarter 2026 U.S. Home Affordability report shows median-priced single-family homes and condos were unaffordable in 98 percent of counties despite the national median home price declining quarter-over-quarter and wage growth outpacing home prices in a majority of counties analyzed.

Report Methodology
The ATTOM U.S. Home Affordability Index analyzed median home prices derived from publicly recorded sales deed data collected by ATTOM and average wage data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in 583 U.S. counties with a combined population of 263 million during the third quarter of 2026. The affordability index is based on the percentage of average wages needed to pay for major expenses on a median-priced home with a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and a 20 percent down payment. Those expenses include property taxes, home insurance, mortgage payments and mortgage insurance. Average 30-year fixed interest rates from the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey were used to calculate monthly house payments.

The report determined affordability for average wage earners by calculating the amount of income needed for major home-ownership expenses on median-priced homes, assuming a loan of 80 percent of the purchase price and a 28 percent maximum "front-end" debt-to-income ratio. For example, affording the nationwide median home price of $368,000 in the third quarter of 2026 requires an annual wage of $90,191. That is based on a $73,600 down payment, a $294,400 loan and monthly expenses not exceeding the 28 percent barrier — meaning wage earners would not be spending more than 28 percent of their pay on mortgage payments, property taxes and insurance. That required income is more than the $79,534 average wage nationwide, based on the most recent average weekly wage data available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, making a median-priced home unaffordable for average workers.

About ATTOM
ATTOM delivers AI-driven property intelligence built on the nation's most trusted property data repository, covering 160+ million U.S. properties—99% of the population. Our engineered, multi-sourced, semantically rich real estate data spans property tax, deeds, mortgages, foreclosure, environmental risk, property conditions, natural hazards, neighborhood insights, and geospatial boundaries, rigorously validated for advanced analytics. ATTOM supports analytics, AI applications, and AI agents through flexible delivery options including APIs, bulk licensing, cloud delivery, and the MCP Server for AI-powered, agentic access to engineered property data, enabling organizations to automate analysis, power intelligent workflows, and scale property intelligence across industries.

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SOURCE ATTOM