unaffordable

American  

[uhn-uh-fawrd-uh-buhl] / ʌn əˈfɔrd ə bəl /

adjective

1. too high in price to afford.

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Explanation

If something is unaffordable, it's too expensive. A house that costs millions of dollars is unaffordable for almost everyone. This adjective often describes things that cost too much money for the average person, like unaffordable rents in a particular city or unaffordable health care. When you can afford something, it's within financial reach; you can manage to purchase it. Unaffordable things are priced too high for your budget or bank account, like those ultra-rare sneakers you covet.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

unaffordable

“A city can be booming and unaffordable at the same time. It can have ever-expanding skylines while its people live ever-shrinking lives. We are not going to pretend that that’s good enough.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

Housing costs over 30% of a household’s gross income are considered unaffordable, and are typically far too expensive for the average American.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 7, 2026

Still, young people say that living at home in 2026 doesn’t carry the stigma it once did because of how unaffordable life has become.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026

The government insists that their current pay is fair, and Health Secretary James Murray has described the union's demands as "unrealistic, unaffordable and unsustainable".

From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2026

The January price liberalization and a blossoming of private vendors filled shelves across the country with previously scarce food items and consumer goods, but wages lagged behind inflation, making such goods unaffordable for many consumers.

From The 1993 CIA World Factbook by United States. Central Intelligence Agency