High income needed to buy a home
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You need to earn roughly $103,000 a year to afford a median-priced home in Houston without spending more than 30% of your income, according to a recent Redfin report.
Why it matters: Houston saw a slight improvement from 2023 to 2024 in affordability among the 50 most populous U.S. metro areas, per the report, but it's still expensive to live here.
Catch up quick: Elevated mortgage rates and record prices are shutting many homebuyers out of the housing market.
By the numbers: A household in Houston making $88,564 (the median income in 2024) would have to spend 35% of their earnings on monthly housing costs if they bought a home for $337,651 (the median sale price), according to Redfin.
- That's down from 36.2% of their earnings in 2023, per the report.
- Austin experienced the most significant affordability gain nationwide, with housing costs dropping by 3.2 percentage points to 39.6% of household income.
- San Antonio followed (-2.3 points to 35.4%), and Dallas (-2 points to 38.9%) and Fort Worth (-1.6 points to 36.7%) trailed behind.
The bottom line: "Affordability improved ever so slightly this year because wage growth outpaced the growth in monthly housing payments," Redfin senior economist Elijah de la Campa said in the report.
- But for many, "buying a home remains more out of reach than ever and that's unlikely to change anytime soon."