Home Buyers Bearish on Affordability

Economics
Published

While home buyers report slightly more optimistic expectations for future housing availability in the first quarter of 2020, there is no commensurate improvement in their outlook for affordability. In fact, 78% say they can afford fewer than half the homes available in their markets, the same share as a year earlier. This in turn means that only 23% of buyers can afford half or more of the homes for sale in their markets, essentially unchanged from a year earlier (22%).

At least 75% of buyers in each of the four generations can afford fewer than half the homes for sale where they live. Geographically, 74% to 80% of buyers in every region of the country say they can afford under half of the homes available in their areas.

The timing of the data collection for this report is highly consequential. The online survey was in the field from March 17 through March 28, during the early stage of the COVID-19 crisis in the United States. About 12 million people filed for unemployment benefits in the two weeks immediately after data collection closed. For this reason, we assess that responses in this quarter’s report mostly reflect people's views prior to the full impact of stay-at-home orders and social distancing restrictions imposed by local and state governments.

Rose Quint, NAHB’s assistant vice president for Survey Research, provides more details in this Eye on Housing blog post.

Subscribe to NAHBNow

Log in or create account to subscribe to notifications of new posts.

Log in to subscribe

Latest from NAHBNow

Economics

Sep 17, 2025

Housing Starts Remain Soft Ahead of Fed Meeting

Overall housing starts decreased 8.5% in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.31 million units, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau.

PWB Week | Professional Women in Building Council

Sep 16, 2025

Tradeswomen Paving Their Own Way

NAHB spoke with Professional Women in Building (PWB) members Elyse Adams and Brittney Quinn about their career paths in the trades and how PWB has positively influenced their journeys.

View all

Latest Economic News

Economics

Sep 17, 2025

The Fed Cuts and Projects More Easing to Come

After a monetary policy pause that began at the start of 2025, the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy committee (FOMC) voted to reduce the short-term federal funds rate by 25 basis points at the conclusion of its September meeting. This move decreased the target federal funds rate to an upper rate of 4.25%.

Economics

Sep 17, 2025

Housing Starts Remain Soft Ahead of Fed Meeting

Challenging affordability conditions continue to act as headwinds for the housing industry, but the sector could see lower interest rates in the near future with the Federal Reserve expected to cut short-term interest rates this afternoon.

Economics

Sep 16, 2025

Builder Confidence Steady but Future Sales Expectations Hit Six-Month High

Builder sentiment levels remained unchanged in September but lower mortgage rates and expectations that the Federal Reserve will soon cut the federal funds rate led to higher future sale expectations in the coming months.