ATTOM, a leading curator of land, property data, and real estate analytics, has officially published the results from its first-quarter 2025 U.S. Home Affordability Report, which claims that median-priced single-family homes and condos remain less affordable in the first quarter of 2025, as compared to historical averages in 97 percent of counties.
Going by the available details, this latest trend effectively extends a three-year pattern of home ownership requiring historically large portions of wages as U.S. home prices stay at or near record levels.
More on that would reveal how, as claimed by ATTOM’ s report, major expenses on median-priced homes currently consume 32 percent of the average national wage. For better understanding, the stated level is the same as in the fourth quarter of last year, keeping the figure above that common 28 percent lending guideline preferred by lenders.
“Home affordability is in a holding pattern this quarter – financially stressful for average wage earners but not changing much. This is not unusual during the Winter lull when home prices level out. A recent small decline in mortgage rates surely hasn’t hurt either for fledgling buyers,” said Rob Barber, CEO for ATTOM. “If history is a good guide, prices will rise as we head into the peak buying season that’s about to start, which will worsen affordability measures.”
More on the same would reveal how ATTOM’s report determines affordability for average wage earners by calculating the amount of income needed to meet major monthly home ownership expenses, including mortgage payments, property taxes, and insurance, on a median-priced single-family home.
The stated calculation is also done assuming a 20 percent down payment and a 28 percent maximum “front-end” debt-to-income ratio.
Talk about the provided data on a slightly deeper level, we begin from the fact that, as compared to historical levels, median home ownership costs in 554 of the 574 counties, analyzed in the first quarter of 2025, were less affordable than in the past. The figure is also down slightly from both the fourth and first quarters of 2024.
During those time periods, 563 and 562 of the same counties were considered historically unaffordable, respectively.
Furthermore, ATTOM revealed how historic measures remain negative as the portion of average local wages consumed by major home-ownership expenses on typical homes were adjudged unaffordable during the first quarter of 2025 in about three-quarters of the 574 counties.
As for counties with the largest populations that are unaffordable in the first quarter, they include Los Angeles County, CA; Maricopa County (Phoenix), AZ; San Diego County, CA; Orange County, CA (outside Los Angeles) and Miami-Dade County, FL.
On the other hand, the most populous of the counties with affordable levels of major expenses on median-priced homes were Cook County (Chicago), IL; Harris County (Houston), TX; Wayne County (Detroit), MI; Philadelphia County, PA, and Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), OH.
Moving on, the national median price for single-family homes and condos has also declined this quarter by roughly 1 percent from record-high levels worth $355,000 during the second through the fourth quarter of 2024. Having said so, the latest figure still represents a 5.2 percent increase over the Q1 2024 and is 10.1 percent above the typical price in the first quarter of 2023.
All in all, median home prices have increased since the first quarter of last year in 416, or 72.5 percent, of the 574 counties reviewed.
Among the 48 counties in the report with a population of at least 1 million, the biggest year-over-year increases in median prices were observed in Suffolk County (Long Island), NY (up 11.9 percent annually); Nassau County (Long Island), NY (up 9.4 percent); Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), OH (up 9.4 percent); Wayne County (Detroit), MI (up 8.9 percent) and Honolulu County, HI (up 7.6 percent).
Against that, counties with a population of at least 1 million where median prices remain down most from the first quarter of 2024, they include Alameda County (Oakland), CA (down 11.2 percent); Fulton County (Atlanta), GA (down 4.2 percent); Duval County (Jacksonville), FL (down 2.9 percent); Harris County (Houston), TX (down 1.9 percent) and King County (Seattle), WA (down 1.9 percent).
