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Charted: The Decline of U.S. Housing Affordability (1967–2023)
Visual Capitalist ^ | 07/21/2025 | Pallavi Rao

Posted on 07/21/2025 9:29:26 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

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1 posted on 07/21/2025 9:29:26 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

bttt


2 posted on 07/21/2025 9:30:38 PM PDT by linMcHlp
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To: SeekAndFind

Wages never kept up. The price of homes now has taken an even larger percentage of people out of the buying a home game. It’s almost as if they don’t want anyone to own private property.


3 posted on 07/21/2025 10:23:20 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: dragnet2

They don’t. Stop paying your property taxes and you’ll see who owns your house very quickly.


4 posted on 07/22/2025 12:14:26 AM PDT by Rocco DiPippo (Either the Deep State destroys America or we destroy the Deep State. -Donald Trump)
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To: SeekAndFind
It wasn't long ago that all it took to support a household with children was one decent income. I grew up in a town inhabited by a mix of working class and middle class people. As far as I knew, none of my friends' mothers worked outside the home. Once the man-hating leftists and feminists convinced women that the only path to happiness was via a career and they began entering the workforce in ever-increasing numbers, TBTB realized that they could jack prices through the roof.

Everything leftists touch is perverted and destroyed. They are a pox on the world.

5 posted on 07/22/2025 12:19:52 AM PDT by Rocco DiPippo (Either the Deep State destroys America or we destroy the Deep State. -Donald Trump)
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To: SeekAndFind

When you bring into the USA 30-40 million foreigners in a short time period, the inflation in housing costs HAD to skyrocket.


6 posted on 07/22/2025 1:25:46 AM PDT by Gnome1949
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To: Rocco DiPippo

Yes, things have changed for the worse in that regard.

And as this information shows, adjusted for inflation, housing is far more expensive than it was decades ago.

It certainly makes it difficult for young people nowadays, if they are trying to buy a house.

I think this information shows in part why there are so few stay at home moms anymore. In many families, mom is working because her paycheck is needed to pay the mortgage.


7 posted on 07/22/2025 2:17:10 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: Gnome1949

immigration is only a contributory factor to why housing prices are increasing vs. income. Sure they push up demand but the larger problem is that supply is not increasing properly. Right now the only new construction that is feasible in most of the country is bigger and more luxurious homes. Zoning laws have become ever more restrictive. Want to build a new detached garage with a studio apartment over it? Fat chance. Want to build some 12-unit apartment buildings with a mix of 2 and 3-bed apartments? Fat chance where I live. The local towns will fight you tooth and nail. What is often feasible to build for lower priced starter homes is too highly dense for current zoning laws. Attached housing like townhouses or even half-duplexes (one building with two separate units) might be economically feasible. But usually zoning won’t let that happen. Suburbs where I am from have a bias for single family detached homes with a yard and they zone the towns for only that in most areas. However the market wants cheaper and more affordable options and it’s illegal to build new supply for that segment that wants it.

I’m from the Chicago metro FYI. The City of Chicago did a zoning overhaul 20+ years ago. Most of the vacant lots are now sitting on zoning that is single family that requires either a lot with 35 or 50 food frontage. Yet most vacant lots are 25 or 30 feet wide. You’ll need to “know somebody” to get a permit to build. And then it will only be a single family detached home.


8 posted on 07/22/2025 2:38:44 AM PDT by BJ1
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To: Dilbert San Diego
My thoughts: 1) Deport illegals and there’s less demand for housing, which would lower prices.

2) We want more from houses than we did half a century ago. Two many young people I know expect their first home to be bigger than the one I grew up in. Bigger houses cost more. As do houses with more amenities like central air, lots of windows, large master bath, etc. that now are considered standard. None of these are bad things. They just cost more than smaller houses with less amenities.

9 posted on 07/22/2025 2:57:51 AM PDT by Tell It Right (1 Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: Rocco DiPippo

Right. Forget taxes on tips and overtime. If Trump somehow eliminated property taxes he would be king.


10 posted on 07/22/2025 2:59:05 AM PDT by Rennes Templar (President Trump is back.)
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To: Tell It Right

Onerous zoning regulations and building codes have prevented modest-sized homes from being constructed for much of the last few decades.


11 posted on 07/22/2025 3:29:37 AM PDT by millenial4freedom (Government was supposed to preserve freedom, not serve as a jobs program for delinquents and misfits)
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To: SeekAndFind
The American Dream just isn't there anymore for a lot of people.

I often hear older people giving advice like "Stop buying coffee at Starbucks" as the real key to enabling home ownership. I'd say the problem is a little bit bigger than that.

12 posted on 07/22/2025 3:40:40 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (When the night falls, it falls on me. And when the day breaks, I'm in pieces.)
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To: BJ1

The Marxists that run the city I live in are doing what you say your suburbs don’t want. They have eliminated single-family zoning in favor of high density apartment buildings. These do not belong in suburbs or anywhere. Communistic behemoths that are designed with govt control in mind and end result of people not owning land.


13 posted on 07/22/2025 3:43:56 AM PDT by vivenne (7Come to think of it. Fact)
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To: dragnet2

Yep.


14 posted on 07/22/2025 3:44:21 AM PDT by vivenne (7Come to think of it. Fact)
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To: dragnet2

“It’s almost as if they don’t want anyone to own private property.”

Ya THINK? - LOL!


15 posted on 07/22/2025 3:46:52 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (It's hard not to celebrate the fall of bad people. - Bongino)
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To: Rocco DiPippo

“TBTB realized that they could jack prices through the roof.”

And employers realized they could pay men less and get away with it when mothers entered the workforce.

No more stay-at-home wives. Children became latchkey ferals and now are destroying the country.


16 posted on 07/22/2025 3:51:53 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (It's hard not to celebrate the fall of bad people. - Bongino)
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To: dragnet2

You know what has kept up?

Property taxes.

In my neck of the NYS woods an existing 2,000 sq ft home can have an annual property tax bill of $5,000.

Imagine what the nicer homes rum.

Those aren’t moving, BTW, unless the price is dropped.

And some still aren’t selling.

Nobody wants to assume the property taxes.

But owners are still on the hook.


17 posted on 07/22/2025 3:53:07 AM PDT by mewzilla (Swing away, Mr. President, swing away!)
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To: MayflowerMadam

See my reply #17.

Government has more to do with it than employers.


18 posted on 07/22/2025 3:54:09 AM PDT by mewzilla (Swing away, Mr. President, swing away!)
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To: mewzilla

“In my neck of the NYS woods an existing 2,000 sq ft home can have an annual property tax bill of $5,000.”

We had considered retiring in western NYS / Southern Tier area to keep an eye on my elderly parents. The taxes on the houses we looked at were between $15K and $20K annually.

We did live in Corning for a year. $7K property tax.


19 posted on 07/22/2025 3:59:11 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (It's hard not to celebrate the fall of bad people. - Bongino)
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To: SeekAndFind

Demographics and affluent aging play a huge role in this. In many regions of the U.S., the prospective buyer of a starter home is competing with a 55+ couple who is downsizing while having two major advantages in buying a home: (1) a higher income, and (2) hundreds of thousands of dollars in equity from the larger home they are selling.


20 posted on 07/22/2025 4:00:56 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Although my eyes were open, they might just as well be closed.")
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