This Is How Much You Need to Make If You Want to Buy a House in 2024

To no surprise to anyone, you’re gonna have to make more money to afford a house in 2024. Two new studies completed by Bankrate and Zillow, looked at the income needed to comfortably afford a home and found that most Americans will need an annual income of over $100,000 on average to buy a house. High mortgage rates, skyrocketing home prices, and low housing inventory have been making things tough for would-be homeowners.

The Bankrate study found that to afford a median-priced home of $402,343, Americans would need an annual income of $110,871. According to Bankrate, that’s a 50% increase in the last four years. To break it down even more by state, the consumer financial services company calculated how much annual income homeowners would need to afford a median-priced home in all 50 states and the District Columbia and compared that to the stats four years ago. It turns out that Americans need to earn six figures to afford a median-priced home in 22 states and the District of Columbia, while four years ago, only six states and the District of Columbia required that type of salary to afford a median-priced home.

The Zillow study had similar findings. According to Zillow, homebuyers need to make more than $106,500 to comfortably afford a home, which is 80% more than in January 2020. Researchers also found that monthly mortgage payments on a typical U.S. home has almost doubled since January 2020, and home values have risen 42.4% in the past four years.

If that’s not all, keep in mind that these stats are for the U.S. in general, it’s even higher for some parts of the West! Zillow pinpoints seven markets where a household’s income must be $200,000 or more to comfortably afford a home, and five of them are in the West: San Jose ($424,296), San Francisco ($339,864), Los Angeles ($279,250), San Diego ($273,613), and Seattle ($213,984). 

Along with mortgage rates, home prices, and low inventory, another reason why it’s gotten harder and harder to afford a home is because wages have not grown as fast. According to Zillow, “In 2020, a household earning $59,000 annually could comfortably afford the monthly mortgage on a typical U.S. home, spending no more than 30% of its income with a 10% down payment. That was below the U.S. median income of about $66,000, meaning more than half of American households had the financial means to afford homeownership.” Now, that $106,500 income needed to afford a mortgage payment on a typical home is way above the what a typical U.S. household earns each year, which is $81,000.

If that sounds totally bleak, not all hope is lost. Zillow says some people are taking creative routes to homeownership—renting out some or all of their home for extra cash, cobuying with a friend or relative, or even moving to a more affordable metro area.