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A hopeful homebuyer needed to make $216,995 to afford a median-priced home in Greater Boston in June, according to new data from Redfin.
With buyers needing over $215,000, only 11.6 percent of June single-family and condominium listings were deemed affordable to households earning the median income, according to the brokerage and listings portal.
While the income needed to buy the median-priced home is far above Greater Boston’s median income of $127,467, that number is actually down 2.8 percent year-over-year.
The median-earning Greater Boston resident would be forced to spend 51.1 percent of their income if they were to try and buy median-priced home. That’s significantly above the typical 45 percent debt-to-income ratio that limits typical, Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-backed home mortgages to high-credit score buyers, and far above the 36 percent for buyers without excellent credit.
Redfin considers a home affordable if a buyer taking out a mortgage would spend no more than 30 percent of their income on their monthly housing payment. This is based on a Redfin analysis of median home sale prices, prevailing mortgage rates and property-tax payments, and assumes a 15 percent down payment.
“The earnings needed to buy a house have stabilized after several years of deterioration, but that doesn’t mean homes are affordable to the average American,” Redfin Senior Economist Yingqi Xu said in a statement. “There’s still a double-digit gap between what the typical household earns and what they need to comfortably buy a home, leaving many prospective first-time buyers stalled on the sidelines. But even if the market isn’t becoming much more affordable, it is becoming a bit more manageable for house hunters.”
Across the country, homebuyers need to earn $109,796 to afford a median-priced U.S. home for sale, down 0.5 percent from an all-time high of $110,382 in June 2025, according to Redfin. The typical homebuyer in the United States would need to spend 37.6 percent of their income to buy a median-priced U.S. home, down from 39.3 percent a year earlier. 34.2 percent of U.S. home listings were affordable to someone earning the median income in June, up from 30.5 percent a year earlier.
