US Homebuyers Need $109,796 a Year, Just Below Last Year's Record

Redfin puts the income needed to afford a typical US home at $109,796 in June, down 0.5% on the year as wages finally grew faster than prices.

A buyer needed an annual income of $109,796 to afford the typical American home in June 2026, according to figures Redfin published on 5 August. That is 0.5% less than the $110,382 required a year earlier — the first easing in a series that has spent three years setting records, and an improvement measured in hundreds of dollars against a gap that still runs to five figures. Median household income is $87,599. The shortfall is roughly $22,000.

Incomes moved, prices did not fall

The improvement came from the wage side, not the housing side. Median household income rose about 4% over the year while the median sale price rose 2.2% — the first time since the pandemic that the first number has clearly beaten the second. That arithmetic pulled the share of income a typical buyer must commit to housing from 39.3% down to 37.6%, and lifted the proportion of listings an average household can actually afford from 30.5% to 34.2%.

The gap between required and actual income narrowed from about $26,000 to about $22,000. Redfin's calculation assumes a 15% down payment, a threshold of 30% of income spent on housing, and a mortgage rate in the mid-6% range — assumptions worth stating, because a rate move of half a point shifts the required income by thousands.

The starter-home rung improved faster

Buying a starter home now requires $70,693, down 1.5% year on year — three times the rate of improvement in the overall market. That is the more interesting number. Entry-level stock has been the tightest part of US housing since 2021, and a faster improvement there suggests supply at the bottom is loosening relative to demand, rather than buyers simply trading down.

Reading it as an owner rather than a buyer

Affordability math like this describes the marginal buyer, and the marginal buyer sets the price. In Glopra's US data the national average is $2,454 per square metre on a 6.71% gross yield, with prices up 2.0% over twelve months and an effective non-resident rental tax of 10.66% in our standardised case — close to 6.0% net.

A market where incomes grow faster than prices is one where the rental pool has more capacity to absorb increases, which supports the yield side even as the capital-growth side flattens. The risk runs the other way if mortgage rates climb further: the required-income figure is highly sensitive to rates, and the 6.69% eleven-month high recorded in early August would, if sustained, undo a year of income gains on its own.

Sources: Redfin, Housing Affordability Report (5 Aug 2026) https://www.redfin.com/news/affordability-homebuying-2026/

Market data: United States · Miami