Unaffordable means too expensive for someone to buy or pay for. When something is unaffordable, it costs more money than a person has available to spend. A family might find a house unaffordable if the monthly payments would take up too much of their income, leaving too little for food, clothing, and other necessities. A new video game system might be unaffordable for a kid who only has $20 saved up when the system costs $300.

What makes something unaffordable varies from person to person. Concert tickets that seem unaffordable to one family might be easily affordable to another with more money to spare. A college education might become unaffordable when tuition rises faster than families' ability to pay for it.

The word often appears in discussions about housing, healthcare, education, and other important expenses. When people say that something has become increasingly unaffordable, they mean it keeps getting more expensive while people's incomes stay about the same. Understanding what's affordable versus unaffordable helps people make smart decisions about how to spend and save their money.