US Housing Costs Rise Further Out of Reach Ahead of Midterms

(Bloomberg) -- Barely six weeks out from the midterm elections, housing costs that many Americans have long said are too high are looking even more out of reach.

The latest blow for consumers came Thursday, when Freddie Mac reported that rates for 30-year mortgages climbed to 6.95%, the highest since January 2025, when President Donald Trump returned to office. That report emerged after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the first time in three years, crushing any hopes that borrowing costs will come down soon.

The outlook for housing remains grim. The 10-year Treasury yield, which mortgage rates closely track, is hovering around its highest since 2007. Builder confidence has tumbled to match the lowest level since late 2022, thanks to an ugly mix of falling mortgage applications, inflated building material costs and immigration enforcement that's scared away workers.

"The housing sector is not a good-news story from any dimension," said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the right-leaning American Action Forum. "We had a period of low inventory on both the owner-occupied and rental side, and now we have the problem of high prices and high financing costs."

Nationwide, 49% of US metropolitan areas tracked by the National Association of Realtors now require a household income of $100,000 to qualify for a mortgage on a median-priced home, assuming a 10% down payment. That's up from just 6% of US metro areas in 2019 and includes cities in political battlegrounds like Columbus, Ohio; Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas; and Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

In 2025, the real median household income in the US was $87,460.

For Trump — who promised on his first day back in office to lower housing costs — the inability to provide relief is boosting chances that Democrats take the House and, possibly, the Senate in November. "Making Housing Affordable Again" is still listed as the top accomplishment of Trump's Department of Housing and Urban Development, but that's not how it feels to many in the housing market, or their employers.

"Whenever one of our staff members is looking for housing, it can be very tough to find something," said Andrew Volk, who owns the Hunt & Alpine bar in Portland, Maine, a top election battleground. Asked if that's made it harder for employers to hang on to workers, he responded, "One thousand percent."