Despite increasing inventory, homes entering the market remain largely out of reach for middle-income buyers, according to a new joint report from NAR and Realtor.com.
Despite increasing inventory, homes entering the market remain largely out of reach for middle-income buyers, according to a new joint report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and Realtor.com.
The report, released Wednesday, introduces the Listing Income Adjusted Score, a metric that measures how well the distribution of homes for sale matches the income distribution of local households. A score of 100% indicates complete alignment. A low score reflects a market skewed toward higher price points. Nationally, this score reached 74.9 percent in March 2026, up from 66.7 percent the year before, but still below the pre-pandemic baseline of 84.4 percent.
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This gap is most acute among middle-income households. People with an annual income of about $75,000 can only access 23 percent of the nation’s listings. This compares to 44 percent in a balanced market. About 311,000 additional properties priced below $261,000 would be needed to restore this balance, the report found.
“Housing supply is increasing and affordability is improving,” Nadia Evangelou, NAR’s chief economist, said in the report. “However, the U.S. housing market continues to face a structural mismatch between the homes available for sale and the homes available to buyers.”
Daniel Hale |Credit: Realtor.com
Daniel Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, echoed this view.
“True recovery requires affordable housing,” Hale said. “Unless the supply of entry-level and middle-market housing increases to match demand, many buyers will continue to find this market unaffordable, despite significant improvements in affordability and inventory.”
Of the 100 largest cities, 99 improved or stayed the same year over year. The markets that are most aligned in terms of listing prices and incomes are concentrated in the Midwest, where home prices remain more closely tied to local incomes. Toledo, Ohio (107.4%), St. Louis (106%) and Akron, Ohio (105%) led the rankings.
The most restricted markets were Los Angeles (39.4 percent), San Diego (45 percent), and Oxnard, Calif. (46.8 percent). The biggest year-over-year gains were in markets that have seen the fastest rises during the pandemic, including Lakeland, Fla. (up 18.3 percentage points) and McAllen, Texas (up 14.7 percentage points).
Madison, Wis., was the only major city to record a decline, meaning the link between income and home prices has weakened, dropping nearly 8 points to 63%.
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