For most Americans dreaming of homeownership, the reality is growing more out of reach—except in just three major U.S. cities. According to Realtor.com, only Pittsburgh, Detroit, and St. Louis remain affordable for median earners among the nation’s largest metropolitan areas. These Midwest cities stand as rare exceptions in a housing market that has become increasingly inhospitable to average buyers, even as demand from homebuyers and investors continues to intensify competition in the region.
In Pittsburgh, the median home price is $249,900, while Detroit offers a strikingly low median of $72,500. St. Louis rounds out the list with a median price of $299,900. In each of these cities, a typical household can purchase a home without spending more than 30% of its income on housing—a threshold widely recognized as the upper limit of affordability.
Just beyond this line, cities like Cleveland and Indianapolis come close but ultimately fall short. In Cleveland, where the median home price is $275,000, buyers would need to devote 32% of their income to housing. Indianapolis, with a median price of $331,500, requires 33.2%—both above the affordability benchmark but still among the most accessible large metros in the country.
The picture grows far bleaker in many other major cities. Realtor.com reports that in metros such as Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, Portland, Providence, Riverside, Sacramento, and San Francisco, homebuyers must spend at least half their income on housing. Nowhere is the gap between income and home prices more severe than in Los Angeles, where a median-priced home of about $1.12 million would consume an astonishing 104.5% of the typical household income of $91,380, unless buyers can make a downpayment of 90% to 95%. In San Diego, the median home price of $995,000 would require 77.1% of a median income of $79,513, while in San Jose and Sunnyvale, 72.4% of the median $156,664 income would go toward a $1.42 million home.
Even on the East Coast, the situation is only marginally better. In New York, a median-priced home costs $795,000, demanding 66.9% of the typical household’s $94,960 income. Boston fares little better, with an average home price of $879,000 requiring 64.3% of a $109,295 income.
These daunting figures help explain why, in the five least affordable metros, nearly half—48.3%—of households rent rather than own, compared to about 35% nationwide, according to Realtor.com.
While these cities represent the most extreme cases, the affordability crisis is widespread. Nationally, the typical home price reached $440,000 in May 2025, requiring 44.6% of the average household’s income to afford, which is based on a 6.82% mortgage rate, a 20% downpayment, and standard tax and insurance costs. This is well above the recommended 30% threshold, underscoring the scale of the challenge facing buyers across the country.
Realtor.com notes that solutions like lower mortgage rates and increased construction of affordable homes could help ease the crisis by making more homes accessible to typical buyers. However, for now, affordable homeownership remains the exception, not the rule, in America’s largest cities.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.