Homeownership is receding further out of reach for most Americans as elevated mortgage rates and rising prices stretch the limits of what buyers can afford.

A homebuyer now needs to earn at least $114,000 a year to afford a $431,250 home – the national median listing price in April, according to data released Thursday by Realtor.com

The analysis assumes that a homebuyer will make a 20% down payment, finance the rest of the purchase with a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, and that the buyer’s housing costs won’t exceed 30% of their gross monthly income — an often-used barometer of housing affordability.

Based off the latest U.S. median home listing price, homebuyers need to earn $47,000 more a year to afford a home than they would have just six years ago. Back then, the median U.S. home listing price was $314,950, and the average rate on a 30-year mortgage hovered around 4.1%. This week, the rate averaged 6.76%.

  • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
    1·
    6 hours ago

    I’m not totally sure what you’re saying no to,

    I’m saying no to you treating this as if there were too much space to build on. Detached homes take more space, but they are also a bit more autonomous, so can exist further from the city.

    Suppose even renting an apartment means most of your wage going to pay that rent. While an hour further from the city center you can buy something, eh, almost like a doghouse (one-story one-room), but that is a house protected from rain, snow and such (actually how Dorothy’s house is described in the Wizard of Oz, LOL), there are some utilities and some land near it to extend it, maybe, or keep your stuff, and in general it’s livable. And it’ll cost similar to rent in the city for maybe a year, and likely less.

    OK, it’s Moscow, so - renting here is really expensive even kinda far from good transport, and it’s not as if supply were competitive, mafia and all.

    There are cooperatives of owners which support some utilities, the road till, ahem, the real road, garbage disposal and some other maintenance together (membership payments, electricity is paid by usage of course). They do not consist of rich folks, it’s almost like a village. So a municipality doesn’t spend anything on such.

    I will watch your video, but I suspect it’s about wrong (in such case) model being treated as a constant and a pretty normal way of living being discarded because of that.