Waiting until fall won’t make homes more affordable, but here’s what will

In the last six years, the typical American home started requiring a much higher salary. Today, according to the Housing Studies’ 2026 State of the Nation’s Housing report, a household needs an income of more than $120,000 to afford the payment on a median-priced home. In 2020, that number was just $66,000. So in only six years, the price of becoming a homeowner has nearly doubled, and for millions of people, buying a home has started to feel like less and less of a possibility. When faced with that number, most prospective buyers land on the same plan: wait for fall, when the market cools, or for a rate cut or a correction. I get questions about this all the time from prospective buyers. They wonder whether it makes more sense to move this summer or hold out for the second half of the year. Given the moment and these questions, it’s worth looking honestly at what the second half of 2026 is actually forecast to hold for prospective homebuyers. What the second half of 2026 actually looks like for buyers The answer is likely more of the same. The Mortgage Bankers Association expects rates to hold near 6.5% through the end of the year, and Fannie Mae’s outlook is nearly identical. The...