The rule used to be buy a home priced at 3 times your income. Is that possible in NC?

Photo byGus RuballoonUnsplash

For years, real estate agents followed a simple rule: a house should cost about two and a half times your annual income.

But across the nation and especially in the Triangle, that guidance is no longer close to matching reality. Still-rising house prices (and home insurance premiums) are crushing many would-be homeowners’ dreams.

In Raleigh, the median home price is now $441,461, up 55.8% in just five years, while the median income is only $75,424. This creates a price-to-income ratio of 5.8—more than double what’s traditionally considered affordable.

Durham is in a similar situation with a ratio of 5.2, and Cary, though better at 4.7, still reflects the nation’s growing affordability crisis.

Across North Carolina, the median home price is $382,900, while incomes haven’t kept pace, leading to a statewide ratio of 5.07. In cities like Asheville, where the ratio is 7.2, the crisis is even more pronounced.

Rising home prices and lagging incomes are pushing many first-time buyers to townhouses, condos, or homes in smaller bedroom towns like Zebulon, Knightdale, and Pittsboro.

With incomes increasing only modestly and housing costs continuing to soar, how do you think this affordability gap will affect homeownership in the long term?