By Tim Henderson, Stateline.org
Like many moderate-income workers, public school teachers Julia and Scott Whitnall didn’t think they’d become homeowners in their early 30s. Especially in California.
“We never felt homeownership was in our cards. But we did it!” Julia Whitnall said. “We’re extremely happy.”
The couple moved May 16 to a $509,000 two-bedroom house in Ripon, east of San Francisco in the Central Valley region.
It wasn’t easy. Despite a relatively high combined income of $140,000 from their nearby jobs, they had to compromise on size and take on extra work at summer camps to pull it off. Then they had to exercise patience as the sellers struggled to find a new home.
High interest rates and high prices in a still-competitive housing market continue to make it tough for first-time buyers, even those with good but moderate incomes.
On a national level, households making $75,000 to $100,000 — typical of teachers, nurses and skilled trades workers in many states — face a daunting lack of homes they can afford. That’s according to new research by the National Association of Realtors and Realtor.com based on listings in March of this year compared with 2024. However, the numbers showed an encouraging 20% increase in homes for sale, affordable or not.
Despite more houses for sale, those moderate-income buyers — which the report called “middle- and upper-middle-income buyers” — are much more hard-pressed to find an affordable home than they were in 2019, when almost half the homes on the market were affordable to them. This year they can afford only 21.2% of homes on the market — a slight improvement compared with 20.8% in 2024, according to the report.
It also found that a few states are improving in affordability for people in the $75,000-to-$100,000 income range. But many states are not.
The largest affordability gaps are in California, Hawaii, Idaho, Massachusetts and Montana, where such households can afford fewer than…
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