Realtor.com ranking highlights Indiana, New York divide in U.S. home affordability

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Indiana vs New York housing affordability

Highlights

Realtor.com's annual housing report card ranks Indiana first with an A grade for affordability, while New York finishes last with an F grade.
The report shows Midwest and Southern states like Texas (A-) and Iowa (A) outperform coasts due to lower living costs and more affordable housing supply.
Coastal and New England states such as California, Massachusetts, and Connecticut receive F grades, hindered by high costs, slow construction, and regulatory obstacles.

State ranking reflects affordability and building trends

As reported by Realtor.com, the annual housing report card grades all 50 states and Washington, DC, from A to F based on home affordability and the pace of new housing construction. The ranking shows the strongest-performing states remain concentrated in the Midwest and South, where lower living costs and a larger stock of relatively affordable homes continue to support buyers.

Indiana ranks first with an A grade, followed by Iowa and South Carolina. Texas receives an A- grade, while North Carolina and Nebraska earn B+ grades, and Delaware, South Dakota, Arkansas, and Oklahoma each receive B grades.

Joel Berner, a senior economist at Realtor.com, says homebuilding is a key signal for the housing market because it affects long-term affordability. He says constrained new supply can worsen affordability over time, even in states that currently score well on income relative to home prices.

Coastal markets face higher costs and slower supply growth

At the bottom of the ranking, states graded from C to F are largely concentrated in the West and New England, where higher costs and slower construction weigh on affordability. New York ranks last with an F grade, while Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Hawaii, California, and Connecticut also receive F grades.

Other low-ranked states include Oregon with a D-, Montana and New Jersey with D grades, and New Hampshire with a D+ grade. Berner says these markets often face slower and more expensive building conditions because of zoning restrictions, permitting delays, and building-code requirements.

The report suggests states in the center of the country continue to hold a competitive advantage because land is generally cheaper and development is easier. Median listing price, household income, and population data in the ranking draw on Realtor.com and the U.S. Census Bureau.

Our earlier article on New York City’s rent burden examined how the city’s relatively high household incomes still collide with steep housing costs across the five boroughs. We noted that renters make up the majority of residents and that many households spend more than 30% of their income on housing, keeping affordability strained despite some savings on transportation.

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