There is a shortage of more than 300,000 affordable homes in the U.S. housing market. The middle class is most critically affected. The analysis was recently conducted by the National Association of Realtors and Realtor.com.

To understand how many homes are missing from the U.S. market, experts compared the price range of the existing number of offers with a balanced market. A balanced market is when half of all available homes are in a price range that is affordable to moderate-income buyers. Such an income in America is $75,000 a year, which means the optimal value of the property should not exceed $256,000.

Here's what the final report showed: as of the end of April 2023, there were about 1.1 million homes for sale on the market, up 5 percent from a year ago. Still, there were almost 320,000 home listings for sale under $256,000 missing from the market. It turns out that middle-income buyers can afford to buy less than a quarter (23%) of what the current market offers. By comparison, five years ago, it was about half.

Among the 100 largest metropolitan areas, El Paso, Texas; Boise, Idaho; and Spokane, Washington, have the fewest number of upscale homes. Three Ohio cities—Youngstown, Akron, and Toledo—have more opportunities for such a purchase.

“Even with the current level of supply, the problems of affordability and housing shortages would not be as severe if there were enough homes in all price ranges,” experts say. “Our country needs to add at least two affordable homes for middle-income buyers to every home listed for higher-income buyers.”