To buy a median-price home in the US, an average person would need to make about $107,000 annually, up from about $74,000 a year earlier, per Bloomberg.
Mortgage rates have eased closer to 6%, a sign the housing market is cooling off.
Lower rates open the market to 3 million borrowers who'd been priced out, according to Freddie Mac.
Markets expect the Fed to stop hiking rates.
"This one percentage point reduction in rates can allow as many as three million more mortgage-ready consumers to qualify and afford a $400,000 loan, which is the median home price," Khater from Freddie Mac said.