Home Price-to-Income

Median US home sale price (MSPUS) divided by annualised average hourly earnings (AHETPI × 2,080 hours) — years of full-time work needed to buy the median home. Historically ranged 4–5× before the 2020 pandemic surge; by 2022 it exceeded 6.5×, the least affordable reading since the peak of the 2006 housing bubble. The affordability crisis is structural: both historically high home prices and sticky mortgage rates prevent inventory from clearing, locking first-time buyers out of the market.

This indicator is computed by MacroLab from two FRED series: MSPUS divided by AHETPI, scaled by ÷ 2,080. Both input series are sourced from the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) database.