What consumers think is causing the housing affordability crisis
A majority of Americans think that people aren’t making enough money to afford homes — and high mortgage rates aren’t helping, according to a Bright MLS survey.
Most consumers see housing affordability as a problem, with low incomes and high mortgage rates serving as the two main drivers.
That's according to a report that Bright MLS published earlier this month based on its December 2025 survey of over 3,200 American adults. The respondents' focus on income and mortgage rates — as opposed to a housing supply shortage — suggests that consumers and economists have different perspectives on the root causes of housing's affordability crisis.
Incomes too low, mortgage rates too high: When listing the reasons that they believe housing is unaffordable, all age groups said low income and high mortgage rates were top of mind. Over half of all respondents — 55.5% — said people "do not earn enough money to afford a home," while 50.1% said mortgage rates "are too high."
Income and home price growth "generally tracked" in the decade prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, Bright MLS Chief Economist Lisa Sturtevant noted in the report. But home prices began to increase faster in 2020, and mortgage rates began climbing from pandemic-era lows a couple of years later.
With those recent shifts in mind, consumers "understandably point to a lack of income growth and an uptick in mortgage rates when they think about why housing has become unaffordable," Sturtevant wrote.
Other factors — including supply — do matter: While some recently published research suggests the housing shortage may not be as dire as was previously estimated, the U.S. is still believed to have a deficit of at least 1.1 million homes.
Some survey participants did mention housing supply as an affordability constraint. Just over 43% of respondents said too few homes are being built at lower price points, while nearly 1 in 4 said too few homes are being built where people want to live.
Survey respondents 60 and older were more concerned with the cost of new homes than younger respondents, while those under 40 were more concerned with location than other age groups. Over 50% of people 60 and older also cited the costs of homeowners insurance and property taxes as key challenges to affordability — factors mentioned by less than 40% of respondents under 60.
Everyone wants solutions: The public and industry experts alike have advocated for several housing affordability initiatives ranging from down payment assistance programs to residential construction regulation changes.
At the federal level, the Trump administration has promised "aggressive housing reform" that could include freeing up retirement funds and college savings accounts for down payments, portable mortgages, and buying $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities.
Last month, the president signed an executive order banning corporate home purchases. However, concerns about income levels and mortgage rates outranked worries about investors among survey respondents, with only about 1 in 3 — 32.3% — saying they believe investors "buying up too many houses" is a factor in housing's affordability problem.