Texans must earn nearly six figures to afford median priced home, new study says

Texas residents must earn nearly six figures annually to comfortably afford an average home, according to a new study by Austin-based home-buying website Realtor.com.

Realtor.com researchers determined the size of paycheck a person needs to take home to afford a home in all 50 states by calculating each’s “affordability gap.” The gap is the difference between a state’s actual income and the minimum recommended income to afford a median-priced home.

In Texas, buyers must earn at least $99,000 annually before taxes to comfortably afford a median-priced dwelling.

Since Texas’ median household income is just $75,780, the state’s median-priced home is 30% higher than what a great number of residents can actually afford.

The median home price in the San Antonio metro area was $330,000 last month, according to the San Antonio Board of Realtors. Meanwhile, the city’s median household income is just $73,195, according to U.S. Census data.

The affordability crisis isn’t unique to Texas, though, according to the study.

“Some states have gotten slightly more affordable over the last year due to wage growth outpacing home price growth,” Realtor.com Senior Economic Research Analyst Hannah Jones said in a statement. “However, with mortgage rates and home prices roughly flat in many places compared to last July, affordability has not improved significantly.”

Indeed, the fixed rate on a 30-year mortgage is above 6.5%, its highest rate since 2008, according to the latest data from home lender Freddie Mac.

Nationally, the state where folks have to earn the least to afford a median priced home was Iowa, where a $76,000 salary is sufficient.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most expensive to buy a home was California, where residents need to earn $198,000.

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This article appears in Aug 7-20, 2025.