Average Americans can't afford a home in 70 percent of the country

Authored by cbsnews.com and submitted by Dogwise
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Homes are actually a bit more affordable today than a year ago, and experts are watching to see if that will continue in 2019

Still, in more than 70 percent of the country, home prices are more than the average worker can afford

Brooklyn and Manhattan took the largest share of income to buy a home — 115 percent

Even with rising wages and falling mortgage rates, Americans can't afford a home in more than 70 percent of the country. Out of 473 U.S. counties analyzed in a report, 335 listed median home prices more than what average wage earners could afford, according to a report from ATTOM Data Solutions. Among them are the counties that include Los Angeles and San Diego in California, as well as Miami-Dade County in Florida and Maricopa County in Arizona.

New York City claimed the largest share of a person's income to purchase a home, according to the report. While average earners nationwide need to spend only about one-third of their income on a home, residents in Brooklyn and Manhattan must shell out more than 115 percent of their income. In San Francisco, residents must spend 103 percent, and in Hawaii's Maui County, it takes 101 percent. Homes were found to be affordable in Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Detroit and Philadelphia.

Broadly speaking, homes are more affordable today than they were one year ago. While home prices are still rising in many areas, they're also falling in others. Unaffordability in the market has been the result of slower homebuilding and homeowners staying put longer. Both trends have reduced the supply of homes for sale in the market.

So long as interest rates don't go up and the impact from last year's tax cuts don't wholly fade away, the market may yet create better conditions for buyers. "Affordability may improve because of the simple fact that homes are out of reach for so many home seekers," Todd Teta, chief product officer at ATTOM Data Solutions, said in a statement.

Today's market is also more affordable than it was 10 years ago, before the housing crisis. Pre-Great Recession, home prices were higher or about the same, and income -- even adjusted for inflation -- was lower. But offsetting those conditions was rampant subprime mortgage lending, which allowed many people to buy homes they really couldn't afford.

"What kept the market going was looser lending standards, so that was compensating for affordability issues," Teta said. Lending standards have toughened since then, and the Federal Housing Administration in March has made it even more difficult for many Americans to own homes.

DepletedMitochondria on April 1st, 2019 at 13:30 UTC »

How many cities have affordable housing problems? It's not simply a NY/SF/LA/Seattle issue anymore, i hear talk about St. Louis lacking affordable housing.

When do we wake up that something needs to be done to address the consolidation of home ownership by institutional investors?

CatalyticDragon on April 1st, 2019 at 12:03 UTC »

Yes but private jets are now 100% tax deductible so it's all about freedom and draining the swamp and protecting ourselves from tyranny isn't it.

MC_Fap_Commander on April 1st, 2019 at 12:01 UTC »

This is why the cherry picked numbers we use to assess economic health are shit. Something is seriously broken when we see a reality like this. And a big chunk of the country (including many who are getting fucked over) are completely fine with this.