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I've often written about how real estate prices have affected members of my own family. Of our four kids, two live in Colorado and can only afford to live in a nice, peaceful town well outside the troubled Denver area because they combine not two but three incomes. Our other two live in deep-red Iowa, in the same small town, where they are easily able to afford nice homes. They have a lot of company. Realtor.com has just released its latest Affordability and Homebuilding report cards, and I should note that, while Colorado comes in at #27 with a grade...

With steadily increasing home prices and stagnating wages among lower-wage workers, home ownership for many Americans has become increasingly unaffordable.The home price-to-income ratio measures the relationship between the median home price and the median household income. This metric is often used to gauge housing affordability, accounting for variations in the cost of living.This map, via Visual Capitalist's Kayla Zhu, shows home price-to-income ratio of each U.S. state, using data from a Construction Coverage analysis of Zillow and U.S. Census Bureau data as of June 2024.Hawaii and West Coast Have the Most Unaffordable HomesThe table below shows the home price-to-income ratio...

Housing affordability in the United States has taken a sharp turn for the worse in recent years, as house prices surged to historical highs during and after the pandemic and mortgage rates have risen steeply over the past three years, as the Fed tried to rein in inflation.It all began with a surge in demand for houses during the Covid-19 pandemic, when many Americans, flush with cash from government stimulus checks, reevaluated their living situation and sought more space amid stay-at-home orders and the sudden possibility of remote work. Further fueling demand were the historically low mortgage rates after the...

Many cities around the world have become very expensive to buy a home in, but which ones are the absolute most unattainable?In this graphic, Visual Capitalist' Marcus Lu highlights a number of housing markets that are deemed to be “impossibly unaffordable” in 2024, ranked by their median price-to-income ratio.This data comes from the Demographia International Housing Affordability Report, which is produced by the Chapman University Center for Demographics and Policy.Data and Key TakeawayThe median price-to-income ratio compares median house price to median household income within each market. A higher ratio (higher prices relative to incomes) means a city is less...

The cost of housing remains a hot-button topic with both Millennials and Gen-Z. Plenty of articles and commentaries address the concern of supply and affordability, with the younger generations getting hit the hardest. Such was the subject of this recent CNET article:“The housing affordability crisis means it’s taking longer for people to become homeowners — and that’s especially impacting millennials and Gen Zers, economically disadvantaged families, and minority groups. There’s not one single driver of the crisis, but several colliding elements that put homeownership out of reach: rising home prices, high mortgage interest rates and limited housing supply. That’s on...

In 2023, 34% of the 131 million households in the U.S. lived in rented homes.But which U.S. cities are the most affordable to rent in? The question isn’t just about cost, but about the average salary in each city, and some cities in expensive-seeming states turn out to be relatively affordable.To answer the question, Visual Capitalist's Pallavi Rao introduces the graphic below.CashNetUSA found rental price data (as of August 2023) from Zillow.com and compared it to city salary data to calculate the percentage of properties available to rent for 30% or less of the local average income.Ranked: Most Affordable American...

On Wednesday’s broadcast of “CNN This Morning,” White House National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard argued that the economy is better off than it was before, but home affordability challenges are still “very great,” and that people are also upset about healthcare costs and junk fees. After Brainard stated that the economy is better off than it was a year ago, two years ago, and three years ago, co-host Poppy Harlow asked about people who feel Bidenomics isn’t working, especially on housing prices. Brainard responded, “We are very focused on a few areas where affordability is still a challenge for...

Food is the palate’s poetry, the body’s fuel, and a shared language transcending cultures... when people can afford it.As Visual Capitalist's Pallavi Rao details below, the World Health Organization found that the COVID-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine pushed 122 million more people into food insecurity between 2019 and 2022. Higher food prices, combined with increasing poverty, have resulted in rising food unaffordability, especially in certain regions of the world.ℹ️ A person is food insecure when they lack regular access to enough safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active and healthy life.Our World in Data...

As Robert Palmer nearly sang, US housing is simply unaffordable. If we look at the Case-Shiller National home price index against real weekly wage growth, you can see the problem clearly. Since Covid and The Fed’s overreaction by providing staggering monetary stimulus, home prices shot up while real median weekly earnings collapsed. Buying a house requires a much bigger slice of people’s income now — making this the most unaffordable housing market since 1984, by one measure. And that crushing lack of affordability isn’t expected to improve much in the near future. In just the last few weeks, US home...

When it comes to housing, living expenses, taxes, insurance, and even grocery costs, South Dakota is the winner for the most affordable place to live in the United States. In its "Cheapest States to Live in 2023" report, Scholaroo, a college scholarship search platform, analyzed all 50 states using 31 metrics, which also included cable, internet, utility, medical, transportation, and even haircut and manicure costs.Indiana came in second, followed by Arkansas, Mississippi, and Nebraska.Scholaroo spokesperson Abigail Da Costa told The Epoch Times that this is the first time the platform has conducted the analysis on the average cost of living...

Despite a recent softening in the US housing market, a combination of rising borrowing costs and still-high prices have put prospective first-time homebuyers in a serious bind.How times have changed...For the first time since records began, first-time homebuyers made up the smallest share of sales last year at 26%. And as we noted on Thursday, a surge in mortgage rates above 7% have sent homebuyer applications to a 28-year-low across all age groups.Now, as the spring homebuying season approaches, tight inventory and uncomfortably high interest rates mean that the American dream can only be achieved by those with high-paying jobs,...

US housing is simply unaffordable. Janet Yellen and The Federal Reserve held rates too low for too long and now we are paying for it. Now, after a massive run-up in home prices, The Fed is raising rates helping make US housing the most unaffordable in history (or at least since the early 1980s). And negative real wage rate growth for 22 straight months isn’t helping!

A new bill introduced by a Florida congresswoman aims to incentivize states to increase minimum teacher salaries as the country’s education system faces a growing need for educators. The American Teacher Act was introduced last week by Rep. Frederica S. Wilson, chair of the Higher Education and Workforce Investment Subcommittee. The bill would work to entice states to increase the minimum K-12 teacher salary to $60,000 through a federal grant program. The bill is an attempt to persuade educators to remain in the profession as a national teacher shortage impacts districts across the country — a problem that has been...

Housing in the US is simply unaffordable for the middle class and low-wage workers. Combine rising food costs and gasoline/heating costs, and we have an economic disaster on our hands. US existing home sales for June will be released on Wednesday. But can The Fed kill-off home price inflation? A preliminary analysis of existing home sales for June is for a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.1 million, down 5.4% from May and down 14.2% from last June. As The Fed cranks up its target rate (green line) and eventually shrinking its balance sheet, we will see further shrinking of...

Simply unaffordable! President Biden met with Federal Reserve Chairman Powell to discuss how to control the inflation that is crushing the middle class and low-wage workers. Here is a good example of why Biden is worried. There is a mid-term election on the horizon and people are angry and scared. Housing, generally the largest asset owned (or rented) by a household is simply unaffordable thanks, in part, to the over-stimulation of the economy by 1) The Federal Reserve in terms of money printing and 2) the Federal government in terms of fiscal stimulus in response to the Covid outbreak in...

US housing is getting simply unaffordable. US mortgage rates are soaring, US home prices are soaring, The Fed’s balance sheet is still growing, and US average hourly earnings are growing at a fraction of home price growth. The unafforable nature of US housing prices is similar to that of 2005-2007 when home price growth greatly exceeded wage growth. Another side effect of soaring mortgage rates: MBA refinancing applications plunged 14.37% from the preceding week. Let’s see if The Fed actually tries to extinguish the affordability fire.

As the latest existing home sales report cautioned, with NAR chief economist Larry Yun warning that “housing affordability continues to be a major challenge, as buyers are getting a double whammy: rising mortgage rates and sustained price increases,” BofA joins the chorus warning that last year’s housing euphoria is unlikely to repeat and this year will be a much more challenging year for the housing market given significant headwinds to affordability and ongoing supply-side challenges. Among the numerous headwinds facing US housing, BofA warns that the Russia/Ukraine conflict adds a new factor to the mix as higher oil and commodity...

$3.4 billion. That’s how much bad roads and congestion in North Carolina costs its drivers in higher vehicle ownership costs, according to a report commissioned by the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Fixing those roads—as well as repairing and replacing bridges, building new highways and any other large projects the N.C. DOT has on its schedule—takes money, and lots of it. Steve Abbott, a spokesperson for the N.C. DOT, said that to bring every bridge in the state to “good” condition would cost $3.8 billion, roughly 71 percent of the department’s $5.3 billion budget for the year. “As of now,...

In life, some things are unavoidable: death, taxes — and if you live in South Florida — tolls. Coughing up money to drive on the highways add to the cost of living in South Florida. Drivers in Miami-Dade and Broward spent more than a half billion dollars in tolls fees in the last year. Consider: A daily trip from Kendall to downtown Miami costs over $4 roundtrip by Sunpass, or about $1,000 a year for a five-day a week, 50-week commuter. For those who haven’t signed up for Sunpass, the toll-by-plate rate of almost $8 per day amounts to $2,000...

The trailing twelve month average of median new home sale prices in the United States reached a new high in March 2018, where preliminary data puts that figure at $326,217. At the same time, the value of the typical new home sale price in the U.S. is 5.57 times as much as the typical household income, which also represents a new record. One way to think of that latter figure is that new homes in the U.S. have never been less affordable for the typical American family at any time during the 21st Century than they are right now....