Towfiqu Barbhuiya for Unsplash

Until recently Dallas was doing relatively well insofar as typical wages keeping up with home prices. But no more, according to the fourth quarter 2022 Home Affordability Report from ATTOM real estate data, which shows Dallas among the latest cities where house and condo price appreciation is outpacing the earnings of the majority of residents.

Nationwide, median-priced single-family homes and condos are less affordable in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to historical averages in 99% of counties across the nation with enough data to analyze — that far exceeds the 68% of counties that were less affordable in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Affordability has worsened due to rising home-mortgage rates in the U.S., which offset the benefits of rising wages and a recent decline in home values, reports the analysts at ATTOM.

(Drill down into the affordable housing issue in our recent cover story.)

“Prospective homebuyers – especially first-time buyers – can’t seem to catch a break,” Rick Sharga, executive vice president of market intelligence at ATTOM says. “For the past two years home prices have appreciated in double digits – 15 to 20% a year in some markets. Now that home prices have plateaued and even declined in some markets, buyers are faced with mortgage rates that have doubled, making home purchases even less affordable.”

Affordability map Q4 2022 from ATTOM

In Dallas, as in many cities that are neither at the lowest or highest end of the affordability spectrum, annual wages of more than $75,000 are needed to pay for major costs on the median-priced home purchased during the fourth quarter of 2022.