--- title: U.S. Home Ownership Is Least Affordable Since 2007 description: The costs of a typical home consumed 35.1% of the average wage in the second quarter of 2024, according to a new report. canonical: https://time.com/6994751/home-ownership-affordability-expensive-attom-report/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-07-03T05:45:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T17:53:12.964Z article:section: U.S. og:title: U.S. Home Ownership Is Least Affordable Since 2007 og:description: The costs of a typical home consumed 35.1% of the average wage in the second quarter of 2024, according to a new report. og:url: https://time.com/6994751/home-ownership-affordability-expensive-attom-report/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1f3c3dc12cdaf97f/698a586a9862f5e41b895de7/us-housing.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Row of identical houses and yards, Queens, New York og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: U.S. Home Ownership Is Least Affordable Since 2007 twitter:description: The costs of a typical home consumed 35.1% of the average wage in the second quarter of 2024, according to a new report. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1f3c3dc12cdaf97f/698a586a9862f5e41b895de7/us-housing.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Owning a House in the U.S. Is Now the Most Expensive Since 2007, New Report Finds by [Prashant Gopal / Bloomberg](/author/bloomberg/) ## Prashant Gopal / Bloomberg Jul 3, 2024 5:45 AM CUT  Homes in Queens, N.Y. Homes in Queens, N.Y.Lindsey Nicholson—UCG/Universal Images Group/Getty Images by [Prashant Gopal / Bloomberg](/author/bloomberg/) ## Prashant Gopal / Bloomberg Jul 3, 2024 5:45 AM CUT Owning a house is less affordable for average earners in the U.S. than at anytime in 17 years. The costs of a typical home—including mortgage payments, property insurance and taxes—consumed 35.1% of the average wage in the second quarter, the highest share since 2007 and up from 32.1% a year earlier, according to a new report from [Attom](https://www.attomdata.com/ "undefined"). **Read More:** [_America Needs a New Approach on Affordable Housing. History Offers a Guide_](https://time.com/6900050/public-housing-biden-plan-history/ "undefined") Growth in expenses, along with mortgage rates hovering around 7%, have outpaced income gains as a persistent shortage of listings pushed the median home price to a record-high $360,000, Attom said. In more than a third of U.S. markets, ownership costs ate up 43% of average local wages, far above the 28% considered to be a guideline for affordability. The latest data “presents a clear challenge for homebuyers,” Rob Barber, chief executive officer of Attom, said in a statement. “It’s common for these trends to intensify during the spring buying season when buyer demand increases. However, the trends this year are particularly challenging for house hunters.” **Read More:** [_Meet the Friends Buying Houses Together_](https://time.com/6987131/buying-homes-with-friends/ "undefined") Pricey markets in the West and Northeast had the biggest declines in affordability, including Orange and Alameda counties in California, and Brooklyn and Nassau County in New York. Among the 589 counties analyzed, 582, or 98.8%, were less affordable in the second quarter than their historic affordability averages, Attom said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6994751/home-ownership-affordability-expensive-attom-report/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6994751/home-ownership-affordability-expensive-attom-report/"},"headline":"Owning a House in the U.S. Is Now the Most Expensive Since 2007, New Report Finds","datePublished":"2024-07-03T05:45:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T17:53:12.964Z","description":"The costs of a typical home consumed 35.1% of the average wage in the second quarter of 2024, according to a new report.","url":"https://time.com/6994751/home-ownership-affordability-expensive-attom-report/","keywords":["housing","wire","overnight","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1f3c3dc12cdaf97f/698a586a9862f5e41b895de7/us-housing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Prashant Gopal / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1f3c3dc12cdaf97f/698a586a9862f5e41b895de7/us-housing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Row of identical houses and yards, Queens, New York","caption":"Row of identical houses and yards in Queens, New York","creditText":"Lindsey Nicholson—UCG/Universal Images Group/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/housing/","name":"housing"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6994751/home-ownership-affordability-expensive-attom-report/","name":"Owning a House in the U.S. Is Now the Most Expensive Since 2007, New Report Finds"}}]}] ```