BAM Key Details:
- Realtor.com’s first Metro Report Cards found Des Moines topping all 100 major metros with an 83.4 score, followed by Raleigh at 82.8.
- 84.4% of income is what a median earner in Los Angeles needs for a typical mortgage payment, the highest burden of any metro in the report and the reason it scored the lowest, at 12.0.
- 13 metros received F grades in the report, while the country carries a shortage of more than 4 million homes, according to Realtor.com data.
Back in June, we shared the rankings from Realtor.com’s state report cards, with Indiana topping the chart and New York finishing last.
Today, three months later, and for the first time, Realtor.com graded the 100 largest U.S. metros on affordability and homebuilding. And only two earned an A-plus: Des Moines and Raleigh.
Los Angeles finished dead last at No. 100.
Every U.S. metro is dealing with some degree of the same national housing shortage, which Realtor.com puts at over 4 million, but the report shows wildly different local outcomes.
We’re looking at what put Des Moines and Raleigh at the top, what sank L.A. and 12 other metros to an F, and why local zoning policy is the key separator between the two camps.
How the Report Cards Are Scored
Each metro gets a score out of 100, split evenly between affordability and homebuilding.
Affordability combines two measures: how much of a typical household’s income goes toward the monthly mortgage payment on a median priced home, and the REALTORS® Affordability Score, which tracks how much of the current housing inventory a range of income levels can afford.
Homebuilding weighs the permit-to-population ratio at 80% and the new-construction premium (how much pricier new homes are than existing ones) at 20%.
Grades run from A+ at 77.5 or above down to F below 30.
The report leans on 2025 data: Realtor.com listings, Claritas household income estimates, and Census Bureau permit and population numbers.
Des Moines and Raleigh Take the Top Two Spots
Des Moines earned the top score in the country, 83.4 overall, with an affordability score of 88.3 and a homebuilding score of 78.4.
Here’s a snapshot of the numbers behind that score:
- Median home price: $349,903
- Monthly payment on that home: 27.5% of median household income, under the common 30% affordability threshold
- REALTORS® Affordability Score: 0.894, versus a national average of 0.675
- Permit-to-population ratio: 1.85, meaning 85% more permits than its population share alone would predict
- New-construction premium: 23.4%, its one weak spot, in the bottom half of the 100 metros studied
Raleigh took the No. 2 spot with a score of 82.8. Its homebuilding score, 93.1, outweighs its affordability score, 72.4.
- Permit-to-population ratio: 2.51
- New-construction premium: -1.3%, meaning new homes there price below existing ones
Eight more metros earned A range grades:
- Columbia, SC
- Houston, TX
- Indianapolis, IN
- Austin, TX
- Jacksonville, FL
- Oklahoma City, OK
- Palm Bay, FL
- Columbus, OH
Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, pointed to what the top two metros have in common.
“Homebuilding and affordability are inseparable, and if we want to improve affordability in a lasting way, we need to build more homes. The metros at the top of these rankings show that buyers benefit most when communities pair homes that are attainable for today’s local earners with enough new construction to support tomorrow’s demand. Des Moines, Iowa and Raleigh, N.C., offer different examples of that balanced approach, but the lesson is the same: sustained progress requires both affordability and supply.”
Los Angeles Finishes Last as 13 Metros Fail
Los Angeles scored 12.0 overall, the lowest of any metro on the list, with an affordability score of 0.9 and a homebuilding score of 23.1.
The stats behind that score:
- Median listing price: $1,129,415
- Share of income needed for the monthly payment: 84.4%
- Down payment needed to bring that payment under the 30% threshold: close to 68%, or about $768,000
- Permit-to-population ratio: 0.47, less than half the national average
Twelve other metros joined Los Angeles with F grades:
- Providence, RI
- New York, NY
- Honolulu, HI
- Boston, MA
- Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA
- San Francisco, CA
- Worcester, MA
- San Diego, CA
- Stockton, CA
- San Jose, CA
- Miami, FL
- Riverside, CA
Four of the California metros on that list, Riverside, San Diego, San Jose, and Stockton, posted stronger homebuilding scores than the rest of the F group. This could mean their affordability numbers improve down the road, once new supply catches up to demand.
Zoning Rules Separate the A’s from the F’s
The distance between the A metros and the F metros comes down to policy more than land.
Realtor.com points to Austin and Boston as the clearest example.
- Boston has four times as many pages of zoning law as Austin
- 79% of Boston’s land carries zoning restrictions, compared with 15% in Austin
- Minimum parking requirements cover 88% of Boston’s land, versus 37% of Austin’s
- Boston has fewer areas that allow accessory dwelling units (ADUs) without restriction, or smaller minimum lot sizes
Both of those last two limit how much compact, lower cost housing can get built.
Realtor.com found another pattern across the report: most A range metros are blue cities in red states, which often frees builders from the kind of state-level environmental review common in F range metros.
Joel Berner, senior economist at Realtor.com, laid out what separates the top and bottom of the list.
“Beyond land availability, the biggest difference between the “A” metros and the “F” metros is local housing policy, especially related to zoning and permitting. The “A”s share regulatory flexibility and streamlined approval processes, while the “F”s are locked in restrictive land-use frameworks. One common thread among the “A” metros is that they tend to be blue cities in red states, which is an important distinction in that builders often do not have to deal with the same kind of state-level environmental reviews that they do in many of the “F” metros, and the “A” metros have the latitude to enact pro-housing policy instead.”
Berner used Austin and Boston as a miniature case study on the impact of local policy:
“Metros that make it easier to build—through more flexible zoning, streamlined permitting and policies that support competitively priced new homes—are better positioned to expand access to homeownership. The contrast between Austin and Boston makes clear that the rules governing what can be built can be just as consequential as the land available to build on.”
The South and Midwest Outperform the Coasts
This pattern lines up with Realtor.com’s state level report cards. The South and Midwest lead the rankings. The West and Northeast trail behind.
Lower housing costs relative to income, plus higher levels of new construction, tend to track with more available land and lighter zoning rules across the Midwest and South.
A few metros scored higher than their own states:
- Raleigh, NC
- Jacksonville, FL
- Oklahoma City, OK
- Palm Bay, FL
- Columbus, OH
Columbus and Oklahoma City make the clearest case. Both metros earned A-minus grades, while Ohio and Oklahoma each received a C-plus at the state level.
The Play for Agents Working These Markets
Realtor.com’s report is a reminder that affordability problems rarely come down to price alone. Zoning and permitting rules shape what gets built, and what gets built shapes what your clients can afford.
If you work in an F grade metro such as Riverside, San Diego, San Jose, or Stockton, keep an eye on local construction pipelines. Their homebuilding scores beat their affordability scores, a sign new supply could ease pricing pressure before long.
And if a client asks why a market thirty minutes away costs so much less, the answer is often written into the local zoning code.
The full ranking covers all 100 metros, so pull up your own market and see where it ranks.
Then turn your findings into hyperlocal content that makes future buyers and sellers in your market smarter about the conditions they face and how that could shape the process.
Here are some ideas for reels:
- Pull up your metro’s grade from the report and react to it on camera, then explain in plain terms what the score means for buyers searching in your area right now.
- Ask a local builder or planning official what permitting looks like in your city, and tie their answer back to the report’s zoning findings
- Explain one local zoning rule, parking minimums, lot size, or ADU policy, and what it means for the kind of homes that can get built near your clients.
Carousel post ideas:
- A “how your market got its grade” carousel, one slide per component score (affordability, then homebuilding), ending with the final letter grade
- A “what this means for buyers in our market” carousel, walking through the local median price, the monthly payment math, and what a real down payment looks like at today’s rates
- A regional comparison carousel, putting your metro next to two or three others in the same state or region and explaining why the scores differ
Static image posts:
- A “by the numbers” post listing your market’s median price, mortgage percentage of income, and REALTORS® Affordability Score on one image
- A “where we rank” graphic showing your metro’s position out of 100, styled like a leaderboard slide
- A before-and-after style post on your own metro, showing how its score would move if a hypothetical zoning change (more ADUs, smaller lots) played out
Wherever you are, chances are good your local buyers and homeowners don’t know about their metro’s score, let alone what it means for them. Help them understand and you someone they rely on for clarity when they’re ready to make a move.
