Over the past several years, housing affordability has become a cause for concern among U.S. households, with many Americans citing it as the issue they would most like to see addressed in the upcoming presidential election. In fact, when it comes to swing states, recent data analyzed by real estate platform Redfin show housing costs have nearly doubled, making the typical home there unaffordable for the average family. The proportion of earnings needed to afford a median-priced home in swing states—such as Michigan, Arizona, and Nevada, among others—has risen from 22% in 2020 to 33% in 2024. Additionally, the median monthly housing payment in swing states has increased by 92% to $2,161.
The steep increase in prices and mortgage rates has made the median-priced home ($316,063) unaffordable to the typical swing-state resident, using the rule of thumb that a household should spend no more than 30% of their income on monthly housing costs.
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