Home Buying and Affordability
How affordable is Phoenix for homebuyers? A new study ranked Phoenix as the 31st-most affordable housing market in the United States based on local home values and household earnings.
Phoenix reports a median home value of $476,700 and a median household income of $90,133. That gives the city a home-price-to-income ratio of 5.29, slightly above the national average of 5.08.
Nationwide, the home-price-to-income ratio now sits near double the recommended ceiling of 2.6. None of the nation’s 50 largest metro areas fall within that recommended range.
Since 1980, median U.S. home prices have surged 551%. Meanwhile, median household income has climbed only 373%.
If wages had matched housing inflation since 1980, the median household income would have reached $115,225 in 2024. That figure exceeds today’s median income by more than $30,000.
California dominates the list of least affordable housing markets. San Jose leads with a ratio of 11.65, followed by Los Angeles (9.75), San Francisco (9.62), and San Diego (9.11). Miami ranks fifth at 7.88.
The latest Census Bureau data shows the median U.S. home costs $414,900, while the median household earns $81,604 annually. The study used those figures to calculate affordability ratios nationwide and across major metro regions.
