The Affordability Gap

Send us a text to chat now! The housing market can feel like a mess of headlines until you zoom in on one brutal metric: the gap between what a typical household earns and what they need to earn to afford an average home. Today, that gap is about $38,515, and it has widened for three straight months. When the math breaks, buyers do not “figure it out.” They run the payment, realize it does not work, and move on. We talk through what is driving the squeeze, including the 30-year fixed mortgage rate jumping to 6.83% and the growing expectation of another Fed rate hike. With consumer sentiment sliding and pending sales turning negative year over year, the buyer pool tightens further and the transaction gets harder even when home prices are still up and homeowners are sitting on record equity. This is not a 2008-style crash story. It is an affordability and financing story. If you are selling this fall, we get concrete about what works: price to what actually sold in the last 30 days, focus on presentation, and move quickly when offers come in because qualified buyers will not wait. We also explain a practical alternative for homeowners who do not want repairs, showings, or commissions, and why having a real as-is number can be a useful baseline even if you decide to list. If this helped you, subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a quick review so more sellers can find it.