Where Is Housing Affordability Improving?

Key Takeaways Housing affordability is improving in most U.S. cities, led by San Jose, Seattle, and Oxnard, CA. Costs are falling the fastest in pricey coastal metros, as well as some Sun Belt markets that overheated during the pandemic. Nationwide, affordability has been slowly increasing since 2025 as wages climb faster than house prices and supply and demand level out. Housing costs have hovered near all-time highs since the pandemic, straining budgets and slowing the market to a crawl. The median sale price recently reached $407,730, the typical monthly payment has topped $2,600, and homebuyers need to spend 37% of their income to comfortably afford a median-priced home. Given this, it might be surprising to hear that housing affordability has actually improved since 2025, according to a recent Redfin report. That’s because incomes have been growing faster than housing costs as inflation has settled down, helping affordability slowly improve. So, where is housing affordability improving the most? Let’s take a look at cities where the share of income needed to buy a house has dropped in 2026, what’s driving improvement, and what buyers can expect going forward. The 10 U.S. citie...