In the last month of February, the interest rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages dipped below 6% for the first time since fall of 2022. That, coupled with a key affordability study, is providing some good news to potential homebuyers.
This decline in interest rates should provide some relief to potential homebuyers who have found housing increasingly unaffordable over the last three to four years. Housing is defined as unaffordable if housing costs (principal, interest, tax, and insurance) are greater than 30% of median income.
The graph below, which comes from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, shows that housing has been unaffordable in the Augusta Metropolitan Statistical Area since May 2022. The latest data (December 2025) suggests that housing costs eat up 32% of median income across the area, down from a peak of 35% in July 2025.
Housing affordability is worst in McDuffie County, where housing costs eat up 39.5% of median income. Housing costs are also more than 35% of income in Lincoln, Burke, and Edgefield counties. Richmond and Columbia counties are more affordable; it only takes 29.3% of income to cover housing costs in Richmond County, and 29.8% in Columbia County. Housing costs are 31.6% of the median income in Aiken County.
