Not even a 0% mortgage rate would make buying a house affordable in these 6 U.S. cities

Even if mortgage rates dropped substantially, the core blem is persistently high prices, particularly in major metro areas

Affordable inventory remains tight as current owners hold onto low-rate mortgages

There are several factors affecting housing affordability in the U.S.—and stubbornly high mortgage rates are something felt across the country

Zillow reported this week it would take mortgage rates dropping to 4.43% to make an average affordable for a typical buyer

But Zillow economic analyst Anushna Prakash said this was “unrealistic” considering the massive dip required to get there

But even if mortgage rates dropped to 0%, Prakash said, an average would remain unaffordable in some major metro areas, according to Zillow

Those include: New York Los Angeles Miami San Francisco San Diego San Jose That’s because high prices “are the bigger hurdle,” Michelle Griffith, a luxury real-estate broker with Douglas Elliman based in New York City, told Fortune. “The reality is that buying into the market especially in Manhattan or prime Brooklyn still requires a significant amount of cash upfront,” Griffith said. “Inventory is tight and competition is high, so the cost of the perty itself is what keeps most buyers on the sidelines.” Between May 2020 and May 2025, the Case-Shiller Price Index, which is widely used to measure U.S. residential real estate prices, jumped more than 51%

While mortgage rates certainly make monthly payments more expensive, Griffith said, affordability “is more the overall price tag.” “Buyers care rates, of course, but what really matters is having enough for the down payment and closing costs,” she added. “A small shift in rates doesn’t suddenly make that million-dollar apartment feel attainable.” Another issue contributing to the housing crisis is a lack of lower-priced inventory

Salim Chraibi, founder and CEO of building company Bluenest Development, told Fortune he sees pre-apved and motivated buyers in Miami, but there just aren’t enough s available in their price range

Chraibi’s company focuses on building s for lower- and middle-income families. “For sellers, many are holding onto s because they don’t want to lose the lower interest rates they locked in years ago, which keeps inventory tight and the cycle going,” he said. “The biggest issue is inventory of the types of s that are considered affordable for middle-income families.” Dealing with sticker shock When it comes to the U.S. market, tipping one scale doesn’t necessarily fix the housing affordability blem

Even buyers who pay in all cash have to “contend with sticker shock,” Alexander Kalla, a realtor with Keller Williams Bay Area Estates in California, told Fortune

The median price in San Jose has hovered consistently above $1.6 million, he said, which significantly strains most households before mortgage financing costs are even considered

While “many buyers here are extremely rate-sensitive, running numbers at every shift in the market,” Kalla said, “the main barrier is that house prices have massively outpaced local incomes since before rates rose.” Rents and prices have been rising faster than incomes across most regions of the U.S., according to a 2024 report from the U.S

Department of the Treasury

Americans now need to make more than six figures to afford a median-priced , according to Realtor.com, but the average U.S. salary is only slightly more than half of that. “Until we tackle prices, supply, and local wage growth, affordability will remain a challenge, no matter what happens with rates,” Kalla said

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