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Here’s a bit of good news for Manhattanites: the borough was the only large county whose homebuying affordability in the fourth quarter was better than its historical norm.
In a year marked by economic uncertainties, high interest rates and a dwindling development pipeline, the improved affordability marks a slight reprieve for those looking to buy in the Big Apple’s priciest borough. To do so, however, an annual income of almost $362,000 to purchase a median home there is required.
The finding comes from Attom, which looked at counties’ home sale and wage data to determine homebuying affordability. The real estate data firm’s analysis assumes that the buyer of a median home is taking on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage with a 20 percent down payment, and is paying for additional typical expenses, like property taxes and home insurance. The Real Deal further analyzed those findings by looking at the 47 counties with populations of at least 1 million residents.
The findings are relative. Manhattan is more affordable compared to its own historical average, as homebuyers in the borough would need to shell out nearly 59 percent of their annual wages to buy there — an improvement from 59.8 percent the quarter before. Still, Manhattan’s fourth-quarter median sales price of $1.5 million was the second-highest among the counties analyzed.
Nationwide, homebuying affordability improved year over year in the fourth quarter by 3 percent, according to Attom’s calculations, even as home prices skyrocketed to record highs in 2025. The median home was $365,185, and buyers would have needed to spend less than a third of their wages on a house. Historically, though, U.S. homebuyers tend to spend a bit less on buying — roughly a quarter of their wages.
Honolulu was the only highly populated county whose affordability measurement equaled its historical average. Still, affordability in the Hawaiian county, long known for its affordability issues because of its isolation and strong tourism industry, also improved over the past year, by 19 percent. That was the greatest rate of improvement among these counties, year over year.
Meanwhile, home affordability in Nassau County, New York, had the worst year, declining by 13 percent year over year. Homebuyers there would need to spend nearly three-quarters of their annual earnings on a house, where the median home price in the fourth quarter was $825,000.
A handful of other counties saw their homebuying affordability fall as well: Fairfax, Virginia (-3 percent); Suffolk, New York (-2 percent); Cuyahoga, Ohio (-1 percent); and Bronx, New York (-1 percent).