While Los Angeles, New York, and Dallas-Fort Worth were among the top 10 least affordable cities for married couple households, Atlanta, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C, were among the 10 most affordable. As in Port of Harlem’s earlier research, this study also reveals that Midwestern cities remain the most affordable.
An analysis of the 50 largest U.S. cities shows disparities in housing affordability, identifying places where high incomes are no longer enough to secure a home, and a handful of cities where the door remains, if only barely, open.
Housing affordability is predominantly worse for nonfamily households across all metros, reflecting income disparities and household composition.
In 2025, the map of affordable America looks a lot like a vanishing species chart – black and red zones overtaking the green, refuges disappearing. New research at InvestorsObserver captures exactly how fast that change is happening – and the numbers are high enough to make even high earners sweat.
In Los Angeles, 97.2% of neighborhoods are now out of reach for a median married-couple household. For single or nontraditional households – 99.9%.
Inside America’s Shrinking Map of Affordable Living in 2025
Providence rocketed from 15% unaffordable in 2024 to nearly 90% in 2025 – one of the most dramatic one-year collapses in affordability ever recorded. Even historically affordable Sun Belt markets like Dallas-Fort Worth and Las Vegas have tipped into crisis territory.
Compared to 2019, when no large U.S. city crossed the 80% unaffordable threshold, half of them now do. The American Dream – a modest house in a decent neighborhood – has narrowed into a statistical anomaly, and the divide between dual-income couples and everyone else is sharper than ever before. The contagion is spreading inland, reshaping opportunity, economic mobility, and even the mental map of where Americans believe they can build a life. And hidden in the data is another truth audiences will recognize – income growth isn’t the cure. Without more housing supply, higher wages just chase higher prices.
Read More:
Note: From Our Archives: Cast Down Your Bucket Where You Are: Renovating IN Gary, IN: WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN HOUSING SHORTAGE
Compared to 2019, when no large U.S. city crossed the 80% unaffordable threshold, half of them now do. The American Dream – a modest house in a decent neighborhood – has narrowed into a statistical anomaly, and the divide between dual-income couples and everyone else is sharper than ever before. The contagion is spreading inland, reshaping opportunity, economic mobility, and even the mental map of where Americans believe they can build a life. And hidden in the data is another truth audiences will recognize – income growth isn’t the cure. Without more housing supply, higher wages just chase higher prices.
Read More:
Note: From Our Archives: Cast Down Your Bucket Where You Are: Renovating IN Gary, IN: WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN HOUSING SHORTAGE
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