Can You Afford the American Dream?

A new map from Esri shows where in the United States real-estate property is most and least affordable. In much of the USA housing supply has not kept pace with housing demand, pushing the cost of property higher. The result is that in many areas large numbers are priced out of the housing market and many Americans are now unable to buy their own home.

The Housing Affordability Story Map uses Esri’s Housing Affordability Index to map the local affordability of housing across the United States. Esri's index shows the ability of a typical resident to purchase an existing home in the area where they live.

The Housing Affordability Story Map shows two main map views of housing affordability. One uses Esri's Housing Affordability Index, while the other looks at the share of income to mortgage. On the maps the red and green shaded areas are the areas with the least affordable housing. The areas shaded the darkest gray are the most affordable.

One problem that Esri's Housing Affordability Map reveals is that much of the population is concentrated in densely populated metropolitan areas where housing affordability is low. These are areas where there is a limited housing supply and expensive real-estate. On average metropolitan areas represent the least affordable housing markets. Unaffordable areas are usually concentrated in large coastal metropolitan areas (where home values are high and where rents are sky rocketing) such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Boston. These areas are shown in red on the Housing Affordability Map.