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Published: Feb 29, 2024 3 min read
Illustration of a house on a really high hill and a person hiking up towards it.
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The income needed to afford a typical home has increased by a staggering 80% in the past four years, highlighting just how much current home prices and mortgage rates are straining buyers' budgets.

Last month, homebuyers needed to make about $106,500 to afford the monthly mortgage payments for a typical home. That’s up from about $59,000 in January 2020, according to a new report from Zillow.

Four years ago, most households could comfortably cover the monthly payments on a typical home because the median income was about $66,000.