May 2026 · Affordability · 4 min read · by Kinan Sawar, MD — REALTOR® at Shorewest, REALTORS®
In the most stretched markets, affording the typical home takes two to three times the typical local income. Here’s how to spot the gap.
The cleanest affordability question isn’t “how expensive is the home” — it’s “how does the income needed to buy it compare to what people there actually earn?”
A common guideline keeps housing costs at about 28% of gross income. Run that backward from the typical home’s monthly cost — mortgage, taxes, insurance at today’s rate — and you get the income a buyer needs. Divide by the local median income and you have the affordability gap.
On the coasts the gap is staggering. In Los Angeles County, affording the typical home takes on the order of three times the median household income — the people who already live there largely could not buy in today. Much of coastal California, the Northeast corridor, and South Florida tell versions of the same story.
~3× — Income needed to afford the typical Los Angeles County home, versus the local median
Across much of the Midwest and South, the typical home is still within reach of the typical income, or close to it. That’s the part of the “unaffordable everywhere” narrative that simply isn’t true — and it’s a big reason migration keeps flowing toward those markets.
On the map, “Income to Afford” and “Affordability Gap” make this concrete for any county. The gap, more than the sticker price, is what predicts who can actually transact.
Kinan Sawar, MD — REALTOR® at Shorewest, REALTORS®, serving Milwaukee and Southeast Wisconsin (Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Washington, Racine, Kenosha, and Walworth counties). Email: [email protected] · Phone: (618) 713-2964.
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Home values and rents are Zillow ZHVI/ZORI estimates for the named area, as of 2026-07-03; incomes and population are U.S. Census (SAIPE, Population Estimates); migration is IRS Statistics of Income. Area-level statistical estimates for information only — not an appraisal, and not financial, legal, or tax advice.