Ohio recorded the largest nationwide decline in homeownership affordability from 2020 to 2025, according to a study by the National Housing Conference, a nonprofit advocacy group cited in a WHIO-TV report.
The analysis drew on Bureau of Labor Statistics data, HUD Fair Market Rent figures and Zillow listings. It measured whether workers could buy a home with at least a 10% down payment while earning enough to cover mortgage and insurance costs.
David Dworkin, the group's CEO, told the station the problem extends well beyond minimum-wage earners, affecting nurses, firefighters, police officers, accountants and, in some markets, doctors and lawyers. According to the report, he said housing costs have outstripped wages.
Dworkin described a widening national trend. A household earning $100,000 or more could not afford a home in only about 30 of more than 300 metro areas in 2019, the station reported; today that income level would be priced out of more than 170 markets.
His proposed remedy centers on supply: building more homes, especially affordable ones and rental apartments, after roughly two decades of insufficient construction at the entry level. Dworkin noted a bipartisan federal effort to reverse the trend but said he wants stronger local action as well.