10 Metros Where Monthly Housing Costs Consume the Lowest Share of Wages

Monthly housing costs continue to rise, with property data provider ATTOM’s Q-3 2025 U.S. Home Affordability Report showing that the typical U.S. monthly payment—including mortgage, homeowners insurance, and property taxes—is now $2,123. While this figure has held steady from the prior quarter, it is up by 6% from the same time last year. With this increase, owning a median-priced single-family home now requires 33.3% of the average American’s wages. That share was up slightly from the 33.2% recorded in the prior quarter and 32.2% from a year earlier.

However, some areas of the U.S. consume far less of the average income. For instance, monthly housing costs in Cambria County, Pa., consume just 9.8% of the average wage. This county was followed by Macon County, Ill., where just 14.2% of wages go to monthly home payments, and then Jefferson County, Ala., where 16% of average incomes go to monthly housing payments.

Meanwhile, housing payments in traditionally more expensive states, such as California and New York, consume much more of the average local income.

The report stated that Counties in California and New York topped the list for unaffordability in Q3 2025. Among the 25 counties where homeownership consumed the largest share of local wages, 12 were located in California and 5 in New York.

The latest home affordability report found that the counties with the highest homeownership burden in Q3 2025 included Kings County, NY, where expenses consumed 113 percent of the average local wage, followed by Santa Cruz County, CA (111.8 percent), Marin County, CA (101.3 percent), Monterey County, CA (96.8 percent), and Maui County, HI (94 percent).