How Home Affordability Differs Among the Red, Blue, and Swing States

Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, home prices and housing affordability are emerging as hot issues in the swing states that will decide the election.

While the housing crisis is an issue across the country, an analysis of Realtor.com® affordability score data shows distinct trends separating red states, blue states, and the seven key swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

On average, red states are more affordable than the U.S. as a whole, and blue states are less affordable. The swing state average sits in the middle, slightly more affordable than the national average. Those relative trends have held even as affordability declined across the board.

Nationwide, home affordability has declined sharply since 2021 in every state, as higher mortgage rates and stubbornly high prices pushed ownership out of reach for many prospective homebuyers. But a breakdown of how affordability differs across the election map, and in the seven key battleground states, sheds light on how voters might respond to the candidates’ pitches on this key issue.