Economic Report: The median income needed to buy a typical home is over $88,000 — $40,000 more than before the pandemic

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The growth of home prices in big cities has slowed but not stalled in the third quarter, according to a new report from the National Association of Realtors.

The NAR, which looked at prices for single-family homes in 185 U.S. cities, found that prices increased in nearly every metro area.

“The median income needed to buy a typical home has risen to $88,300 — that’s almost $40,000 more than it was prior to the start of the pandemic, back in 2019,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the NAR, said in a statement.

“With a 20% down payment, the mortgage payment on a typical existing single-family home was $1,840, up 50% from a year ago.”

With a 20% down payment, the monthly mortgage payment on a typical existing single-family home was $1,840, up 50% from a year ago, the NAR added.

Out of 185 markets, 181 saw prices go up in the third quarter, the NAR said. And compared with a year ago, the national median price for an existing single-family home rose much more slowly, by 8.6%, to $398,500.

“The more expensive markets on the West Coast will likely experience some price declines following this rapid price appreciation, which is the result of many years of limited home building,” Yun said.

“The Midwest, with relatively affordable home prices, will likely continue to see price gains as incomes and rents both rise,” he added.

While home prices went up across America, the pace of the increase has slowed: Only 46% of metropolitan areas posted double-digit annual price appreciation, compared with 80% in the last quarter, according to the NAR.

Higher mortgage rates, particularly with the 30-year rate above 7%, have hit buyers hard, and demand for homes has plunged.

Here are the most expensive markets in the U.S. in the third quarter:

Rank	Metro area	Year-over-year price growth	Median price of a single-family existing home
1	San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara	2.3%	$1.69 million
2	San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward	-3.7%	$1.3 million
3	Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine	9.1%	$1.2 million
4	Urban Honolulu	7.6%	$1.13 million
5	San Diego-Carlsbad	5.9%	$900,000
6	Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale	3.8%	$893,200
7	Boulder	7.5%	$826,900
8	Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island	16.7%	$746,600
9	Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue	4.6%	$741,300
10	Boston-Cambridge-Newton	6.2%	$698,900

Where are prices still growing fast?

But price growth is still going strong in Florida.

Overall, the South had the biggest share of single-family existing-home sales, the NAR said, at 44%, and also saw the biggest year-over-year price growth, at 11.9% in the third quarter.

The Midwest saw the slowest growth at 6.6%, followed by the West at 7.4% and the Northeast at 8.2%.

Here are the top 10 metro areas with the largest year-over-year price increases:

Rank	Metro area	Year-over-year price growth
1	North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton	23.8%
2	Lakeland-Winter Haven	21.2%
3	Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach	21.1%
4	Panama City	20.5%
5	Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach	19.6%
6	Port St. Lucie	19.4%
7	Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin	18.9%
8	Kingsport-Bristol-Bristol	18.8%
9	Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater	18.8%
10	Ocala	18.8%