You don’t have to tell prospective homeowners how difficult it is to buy a house in New Jersey in 2025. The bad news is it’s going to get even harder by 2030, according to HireAHelper, an online marketplace where consumers can find, compare and book local moving companies.
New Jersey is predicted to have the ninth-most expensive median house price in the country by 2030 of $844,849. Garden State residents will need the second-highest household income to afford it, according to HireAHelper. With annual property costs, including mortgage and taxes, expected to top $70,104, households will need to earn $210,313, a 94.61% jump from current income levels to keep up affordability. That’s predicted to be the fifth-largest homeownership gap in the nation.
New Jersey is joined by eastern states New York, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire in the top 10 states with yawning affordability gaps. The rest of the top 10 are western states California, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
By 2030, home prices are projected to outpace income growth in all 50 states, with a national median of $615,103. Eight out of 50 states will have to see their household income double in five years to make predicted house prices affordable.
Montana is predicted to be the least affordable state for homeownership in 2030. To keep up with rising house prices, household income in the Treasure State would need to leap by 144.09%. With median home prices expected to reach $932,584 and annual property costs climbing to $63,582, Montana residents would need to earn more than $190,746 a year to afford a home.
Soaring house prices in California have long outdistanced its already high salaries, and the gap is widening. The data shows that household income would have to increase by 139.83% to $251,989 a year – the highest of any state – and more than double the national median. In 2030, forecasted house prices are likely to reach a skyscraping median of $1,239,280, also higher than any other state.
To find out where Americans may be priced out of property in the future, HireAHelper created a five-year projection that analyzed the historical progression of house prices and household income for each city and state in the U.S. By looking at how these rates increase from 2025 to 2030, it identified where residents might not be able to afford to buy a home.
