California house hunters can afford only 12% of homes up for sale

Here’s another example of the deep lack of affordability in California housing: Just one in eight homes for sale in the state’s six largest metropolitan areas look “affordable” to typical local incomes.

My trusty spreadsheet reviewed Zillow statistics on pricing and inventory, comparing a house hunter’s theoretical buying power with the number of homes listed for sale in January in 50 big U.S. metro areas, including six from California. Zillow’s affordability target price is based on house payments — excluding taxes and insurance and assuming a 20% down payment — that equal 30% of the local median income.

In the state’s largest housing markets combined, only 6,341 of 51,803 listings were priced below a combined affordability maximum of $415,600.

That’s just 12%.

The only good news is that this shamefully meager level of affordability is up from 8% at the start of 2025. Cheaper mortgage rates and incomes outpacing home appreciation helped to improve a house hunter’s hopes.

Ugly truth

But just how horrible is 12%?

Consider the 44 metros studied outside of the Golden State.

Collectively, 38% of homes for sale were affordable – 187,364 of 487,796 listings below the $346,4...