Wages in the affordable housing sector have risen sharply since 2020, with the industry median rising from $115,000 to $150,000 last year, according to a Jackson Lucas survey.
Between 2023 and 2025, median compensation reached $107,500 for analysts/associates, $150,000 for directors, and $210,000 for C-suite executives.
“There’s a huge change,” says Chris Papa, a founding partner of the talent and consulting firm. “Affordable housing has become a much more institutionalized asset class. Origination roles, development roles, acquisition roles aren’t necessarily popping on other classes, but they are in affordable housing.”
The Jackson Lucas study is notable because data on wages and compensation in the affordable housing sector has been very limited. The research covers a wide range of positions, with a focus on professional staff.
“Over the last few years, the talent pool in affordable housing has gone up,” adds Papa. “It’s a combination of higher comps and people attracted to doing good.”
The biggest gains have been at the top executive positions as firms incentivize leadership to build their businesses, reveals the survey, which polled 527 people working in a wide spectrum of roles.
While base salaries have significantly increased in the last few years, affordable housing still trails the market-rate housing industry. When comparing all roles, the base salary gap is about 17%—$150,000 for affordable versus $175,000 for others.
In addition, the findings show that affordable housing lags when it comes to bonuses, which may be attributed to bonuses often tied to hitting certain returns or profit goals that are more easily achieved in other real estate properties, says Audrey Symes, partner and head of research at Jackson Lucas.
There’s also a notable spread in long-term incentives (LTIs), such as an ownership interest in a firm or equity in a deal, with only 30.3% of affordable housing professionals with LTIs versus 38.9% in the market-rate industry.
Other findings from the survey reveal:
- Affordable housing has a more diverse workforce than conventional multifamily housing. About 34% of the affordable housing respondents are female compared with just 20% in multifamily;
- About 24% of affordable housing professionals are people of color versus 16% in multifamily;
- Compensation expectations are rising, with 80.1% in affordable housing anticipating total compensation to increase year over year, while the rest expect compensation to stay flat or decrease; and
- Remote work patterns also differ between sectors. Only 19% of affordable housing professionals work fully in office compared with 28% in the market-rate sector. Meanwhile 20% in affordable are fully remote, double the 10% in conventional multifamily. About 81% of affordable housing professionals work from home at least one day per week.
Compensation has been “a black box” for the industry with people having little data, Papa says, noting that transparency will help everyone.
“It’s also a vote of confidence for the asset class,” adds Symes. “It shows that affordable housing is maturing and progressing. It’s reached its point of lift.”