--- title: The Housing Market Is ‘Missing’ Over 300,000 Affordable Homes description: The number of homes for sale that are affordable to middle-class American buyers has dropped steeply, according to a new Realtor.com report. authors: - name: Pete Grieve role: Lead News Reporter url: https://money.com/author/pete-grieve/ bio: Pete Grieve is a personal finance reporter at Money who frequently covers news stories about housing topics including home buying, mortgage rates and homeowners insurance. education: University of Chicago, BA Political Science at_money_since: 2022 articles: 601 covers: - Housing - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://twitter.com/pete_grieve - https://linkedin.com/in/pete-grieve-b5aa02138 - https://www.facebook.com/petegrieve4 editors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Housing - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2023-06-09T18:53:22.000Z' modified: '2024-01-10T14:54:03.000Z' section: Housing tags: - News word_count: 432 canonical: https://money.com/decrease-homes-middle-class-can-afford/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Photo Collage of multiple dollar bills folded up to look like a small house, stacked on top of each other in decreasing sizes](https://img.money.com/2023/06/News-House-Drop-In-Affordability.jpg) While the current [housing market](https://money.com/homebuyers-wait-mortgage-rates-drop/) is [lacking in inventory](https://money.com/why-are-there-no-houses-for-sale/) overall, there’s a dire deficiency in the supply of homes that the middle class can actually afford to buy. According to a [new report](https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics/research-reports/housing-affordability-supply) from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and Realtor.com, a household earning $75,000 can afford a home that costs $256,000 tops — but only 23% of home listings are priced below that amount at the moment. Most U.S. households (51%) earn less than $75,000, so the authors of the report say that for the housing market to be in “equilibrium,” we’d need to see a majority of the homes on the market be in the sub-$256,000 range. Instead, the number of homes in that budget is just a fraction of what would be needed for the market to be truly balanced based on income. And the gap is much worse than it was a few years ago. Before the pandemic, the housing market was skewed toward homes priced outside the budgets of [middle-class Americans](https://money.com/what-does-middle-class-look-like/), but the situation wasn’t nearly as bad. Homeownership has become increasingly unattainable for the middle class in recent years as prices have skyrocketed. - In April 2018, there were 810,000 home listings within the budget of a buyer earning $75,000. That figure has sunk to just 262,580 as of April 2023 thanks to home price growth and declines in inventory. - The market is “missing” a total of 320,000 listings under $256,000, according to the report. In 2018, the market was only missing 150,000 listings regarded as affordable to lower-earning households. ## What it means for you The [number of homes for sale](https://money.com/why-are-there-no-houses-for-sale/) is increasing somewhat, rising 5% in the past year, but inventory is still low by historical standard as homeowners have some strong incentives against selling. - Namely, many owners feel [“locked in”](https://money.com/low-mortgage-rates-trap-home-sellers/) to their current mortgage due to [high interest rates](https://money.com/best-mortgage-lenders/). If they were to sell and buy a new home, they’d have to commit to a much higher [mortgage rate](https://money.com/current-mortgage-rates/) with their new loan. - But the NAR report contends that despite low inventory, the market could be more accessible if the inventory was better balanced and included more affordable homes. - “Even with the existing level of homes available for sale, the housing affordability and shortage issues wouldn't be so severe if there were enough homes for all income levels,” the report says. [The Best Mortgage Lenders of 2023](https://money.com/best-mortgage-lenders/) ['Do I Put Off My Dream?' Steep Down Payments Are a Nightmare for First-Time Homebuyers](https://money.com/homebuyers-saving-down-payment-nightmare/) [2 in 3 Americans Planning to Buy a Home Are Waiting Until Mortgage Rates Drop](https://money.com/homebuyers-wait-mortgage-rates-drop/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/decrease-homes-middle-class-can-afford/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Housing", "item": "https://money.com/housing/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Housing Market", "item": "https://money.com/housing-market/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "The Housing Market Is ‘Missing’ Over 300,000 Affordable Homes" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/decrease-homes-middle-class-can-afford/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/decrease-homes-middle-class-can-afford/", "name": "The Housing Market Is ‘Missing’ Over 300,000 Affordable Homes", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2023-06-09T18:53:22.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/decrease-homes-middle-class-can-afford/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/decrease-homes-middle-class-can-afford/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-01-10T14:54:03.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "The Housing Market Is ‘Missing’ Over 300,000 Affordable Homes", "articleSection": "Housing", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2023/06/News-House-Drop-In-Affordability.jpg", "width": 2592, "height": 1728, "caption": "News-House-Drop-In-Affordability" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Pete Grieve", "url": "https://money.com/author/pete-grieve/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/pete-grieve/#author", "description": "Pete Grieve is a personal finance reporter at Money who frequently covers news stories about housing topics including home buying, mortgage rates and homeowners insurance.", "image": "https://img.money.com/2023/02/peter.png?w=350&h=430&crop=1", "email": "peter.grieve@money.com", "jobTitle": "Lead News Reporter", "alumniOf": "University of Chicago, BA Political Science", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/pete_grieve", "https://linkedin.com/in/pete-grieve-b5aa02138", "https://www.facebook.com/petegrieve4" ], "worksFor": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2023-06-09T18:53:22.000Z", "description": "The number of homes for sale that are affordable to middle-class American buyers has dropped steeply, according to a new Realtor.com report.", "abstract": "The number of homes for sale that are affordable to middle-class American buyers has dropped steeply, according to a new Realtor.com report.", "@id": "https://money.com/decrease-homes-middle-class-can-afford/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-01-10T14:54:03.000Z", "editor": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Tuttle", "url": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/#author", "description": "Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/Brad-Tuttle.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Columbia University School of Journalism, MS", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle", "https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225" ] } ], "wordCount": 432, "keywords": [ "News" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Housing in the United States", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_in_the_United_States" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Housing market", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_market" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Real estate", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_estate" ] } ] } ] } ```