History of monthly mortgage payments: Comparing costs then and now
Home prices back then, not so much. In 1971, the typical home sale price averaged $25,225, according to Census data, or about $195,000 in inflation-adjusted dollars in 2024.
Last year, however, the typical home sale price actually averaged $418,975.
Meanwhile, the median household income rose from around $10,300 annually in 1971 to roughly $80,600 in 2023.
Over the years, a shifting combination of mortgage rates, home prices, incomes and inflation has made it ever more challenging to become a homeowner, and mortgage payments now take up much more of the typical budget. Here's a look at how they've increased over the years.
The typical monthly mortgage payment has climbed dramatically in recent years, from about $1,100 in 2020 to double that — $2,207 — in 2024 (when not adjusted for inflation). When adjusted for inflation, the increase still works out to near an additional $800 a month.
Home prices rose precipitously during the pandemic, from an average sale price of $328,150 in 2020 to $418,975 in 2024. At the same time, mortgage rates on 30-year fixed loans shot up.
'Today's homebuyer is financing $100,000 more than the buyer five years ago and doing so at a rate of 7 percent instead of 3 percent,' says Greg McBride, CFA, chief financial analyst for Bankrate.
Similarly, mortgage payments rose 50 years ago, too. Between 1971 and 1981 — also boosted by prices and rates — the typical monthly mortgage payment went from around $1,100 to $2,650 in inflation-adjusted dollars in 2024. By 1981, the average sale price was $68,950, or about $238,450 in inflation-adjusted dollars in 2024.
Monthly mortgage payments by year
Year
Average 30-year fixed mortgage rate
Typical monthly mortgage payment
1971
7.54%
$141.65
1972
7.38%
$152.16
1973
8.04%
$192.09
1974
9.19%
$236.01
1975
9.05%
$253.94
1976
8.86%
$281.12
1977
8.85%
$310.56
1978
9.64%
$380.27
1979
11.20%
$485.67
1980
13.74%
$603.12
1981
16.67%
$771.64
1982
16.06%
$747.41
1983
13.24%
$678.37
1984
13.88%
$751.77
1985
11.85%
$685.72
1986
10.39%
$667.38
1987
10.40%
$759.93
1988
10.38%
$813.21
1989
10.25%
$863.30
1990
9.97%
$856.45
1991
9.09%
$778.50
1992
8.27%
$730.85
1993
7.17%
$684.88
1994
8.28%
$786.07
1995
7.86%
$773.12
1996
7.76%
$804.59
1997
7.57%
$816.66
1998
6.91%
$801.28
1999
7.46%
$892.19
2000
8.08%
$991.02
2001
7.01%
$922.24
2002
6.57%
$947.51
2003
5.89%
$910.67
2004
5.88%
$1,032.91
2005
5.93%
$1,126.09
2006
6.47%
$1,228.69
2007
6.40%
$1,225.74
2008
6.23%
$1,128.32
2009
5.38%
$966.60
2010
4.86%
$941.22
2011
4.65%
$927.73
2012
3.88%
$919.97
2013
4.16%
$1,036.54
2014
4.31%
$1,132.72
2015
3.99%
$1,122.10
2016
3.79%
$1,136.01
2017
4.14%
$1,252.35
2018
4.70%
$1,349.60
2019
4.13%
$1,242.42
2020
3.38%
$1,161.32
2021
3.15%
$1,316.71
2022
5.53%
$1,973.12
2023
7.00%
$2,270.15
2024
6.90%
$2,207.36
The other piece: incomes. From 1984 to 2021, the median household income went from $58,930 to $79,260, according to Census estimates. In that 37-year window, mortgage payments accounted for less than 20 percent of household incomes in all but five of those years.
That changed in 2022, when both home prices and mortgage costs rapidly rose. That year, the average sales price was $432,950 and mortgage payments ate up around 31 percent of the $77,540 median household income. In 2023, that share increased to almost 34 percent.
Currently, prospective homebuyers need an annual household income of nearly $117,000 to afford a median-priced home in the U.S., according to Bankrate's 2025 Housing Affordability Study.
Mortgage payment share of monthly income by year
Year
Median household income
Mortgage payment share of monthly income
1984
$58,930
15.31%
1985
$60,050
13.70%
1986
$62,280
12.86%
1987
$63,060
14.46%
1988
$63,530
15.36%
1989
$64,610
16.03%
1990
$63,830
16.10%
1991
$61,960
15.08%
1992
$61,450
14.27%
1993
$61,150
13.44%
1994
$61,800
15.26%
1995
$63,770
14.55%
1996
$64,710
14.92%
1997
$66,050
14.84%
1998
$68,470
14.04%
1999
$70,210
15.25%
2000
$70,020
16.98%
2001
$68,870
16.07%
2002
$68,310
16.64%
2003
$68,350
15.99%
2004
$68,250
18.16%
2005
$69,310
19.50%
2006
$70,080
21.04%
2007
$71,210
20.66%
2008
$68,780
19.69%
2009
$68,340
16.97%
2010
$66,730
16.93%
2011
$65,750
16.93%
2012
$65,740
16.79%
2013
$68,220
18.23%
2014
$67,360
20.18%
2015
$71,000
18.97%
2016
$73,520
18.54%
2017
$74,810
20.09%
2018
$75,790
21.37%
2019
$81,210
18.36%
2020
$79,560
17.52%
2021
$79,260
19.94%
2022
$77,540
30.54%
2023
$80,610
33.79%
Other housing costs keep rising, too. Let's break down some aspects of homeownership:
Property taxes: From 2019 to 2024, property taxes went up by 27 percent on average, according to CoreLogic. In some states, the increase has been much higher: Tax bills in Colorado and Georgia, for example, rose by more than 50 percent in the last five years.
Homeowners insurance: As of July 2025, the national average homeowners insurance cost was $2,466 annually for a policy with a $300,000 dwelling limit, according to Bankrate data.
'Hidden' expenses: The typical single-family home costs more than $21,000 a year to own and maintain, according to Bankrate's 2025 Hidden Costs of Homeownership Study. Aside from insurance and taxes, those expenses include cable, energy and internet costs.
Buyer's remorse: A full 16 percent of homeowners with at least one regret about their home purchase say their mortgage payment is too high, according to Bankrate's 2025 Home Affordability Report.
The jump in mortgage payments in recent years isn't lost on me. In 2021, my wife and I bought a new house for our expanding family and work-from-home careers. After more than six months looking, we signed a purchase agreement and got a mortgage at 2.99 percent. We closed two weeks before our son was born, in early 2022.
If the sale fell through, or we had decided to wait to buy until after our son arrived, that same home would've been completely out of reach for us later in the year. We would've been shopping for mortgages at rates close to 7 percent, and our payment would've increased by several hundred dollars a month.
We're proof of the 'lock-in effect' that's keeping homeowners from moving and taking a new loan — especially one that'd double our monthly housing costs.
Still, life happens. Incomes change, and the housing market does, too.
'In the absence of continually lower mortgage rates, home prices cannot rise faster than homebuyer incomes in perpetuity,' McBride says. 'After the outsized home price appreciation exiting the pandemic, most markets are likely looking at a very tepid pace of home price appreciation in the next few years as incomes, and the buying power of households, closes some of that gap.'
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