People who identify as LGBTQ+ face more challenges than most when it comes to housing affordability.
A new report from Redfin revealed a number of different barriers to homeownership for individuals with atypical gender identity and sexual orientation.
U.S. homebuyers need to earn an annual income of $150,364 to afford a median-priced home in areas with state laws protecting LGBTQ+ people from housing discrimination. That’s 46.8% more than the $102,435 buyers need to earn to afford a home in areas without such protections. Both of those are higher than 2023’s $79,689 estimated median U.S. household income.
“LGBTQ+ Americans face disproportionately large barriers to homeownership,” Redfin Senior Economist Elijah de la Campa pointed out. “On top of paying a premium to live somewhere that feels safe, many LGBTQ+ house hunters are earning less than the typical U.S. worker, and face discrimination while shopping for homes despite laws that prohibit it.”
Housing nondiscrimination laws shield LGBTQ+ individuals from being evicted unfairly, denied housing, and being blocked from homeownership or rental properties based on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
Because some metros fall across state lines, the report defines those with protections as being located in at least one state prohibiting this type of discrimination. Furthermore, states without explicit protections are still subject to federal law through the Fair Housing Act.
More than one in five (22%) LGBTQ+ people who recently moved believe they were discriminated against based on their sexual orientation during their most recent home search, according to a 2023 survey commissioned by Redfin. A separate 2024 survey found that 12.7% of LGBTQ+ respondents planning to move in the next year want to relocate to an area where people are more accepting/inclusive of LGBTQ+ people.
Among areas with LGBTQ+ protections, people making the median household income would need to spend 44.5% of their earnings on monthly housing costs if they bought a home for $492,290, the median home sale price in those areas last year. By comparison, buyers in areas without protections would’ve had to spend 38.3% of their earnings if they purchased the $357,010 median priced home in their area.
In the metros that are home to the most LGBTQ+ people, less than 10% of home listings are affordable for the median household income-earner. In San Francisco, for example, which has the highest share of adults identifying as LGBTQ+, (6.7%) only 5.1% of listings were affordable on the median local income — one of the lowest shares in the country in 2023.
Portland, OR has the second highest share of LGBTQ+ adults (6%), and only 6.7% of homes for sale there were affordable. Next up is Austin, TX, where 5.9% of the adult population identifies as LGBTQ+, and just 2.9% of listings were affordable; Seattle, (5.2% of adults, 4.8% of listings) and Los Angeles (5.1% of adults and 1.9% of listings). All of those metros, excluding Austin, has state-level LGBTQ+ protections. All five metros also had a median home sale price above the national level of $410,252.
On the other end of the spectrum, metros with lower shares of LGBTQ+ adults have more affordable listings. Pittsburgh tops this list, with 3.3% of the adult population identifying as LGBTQ+, (the smallest share in the country, tied with Raleigh, NC). More than half of listings in Pittsburgh (57.4%) and nearly one in five in Raleigh (17.8%) were affordable for someone on the median local income.
Omaha, NE has the next lowest share of LGBTQ+ adults (3.4%), and almost one-third (30%) of homes for sale were affordable. In Milwaukee and Houston, LGBTQ+ people make up 3.5% of the adult population, and a respective 38.9% and 16.7% of listings were affordable. Pittsburgh, Raleigh and Houston have no state-level protections for LGBTQ+ people, while Omaha and Milwaukee do.
Among the 54 metros Redfin analyzed, 30 are in states with LGBTQ+ protections and the most affordable are in the Northeast and Midwest. In order by the share of affordable listings for median income-earners, Rochester, NY tops the list at 55.5%. Next comes Detroit (55.3%), Buffalo, NY (50.3%), Baltimore (48%) and Albany, NY (41.1%). In all five of those metros, the median home sale price was below the national level of $410,252, and the typical buyer would’ve had to spend roughly 30% of their income on monthly housing payments.
LGBTQ+ individuals struggle more with housing costs (56.5%) than their typical peers, (49.9%) according to Redfin’s survey.
