via WSJ:
The dream of homeownership has grown more out of reach for middle-class Americans during the pandemic.
The surge in home prices and sharp decline in the number of homes for sale have made home buying more difficult for many Americans compared with two years ago, according to a study from the National Association of Realtors released Monday.
At the end of last year, there were about 411,000 fewer homes on the market that were considered affordable for households earning between $75,000 and $100,000 than before the pandemic, the study found. At the end of 2019, there was one available listing that was affordable for every 24 households in this income bracket. By December 2021, the figure was one listing for every 65 households.
The study, the first of its kind from NAR, calculated affordability for different income tiers by assuming households use a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and don’t spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs, including taxes and insurance.
The share of Americans who say it’s a good time to buy a house hit an all-time low in January while 69% of respondents to a Fannie Mae survey said it’s a good time to sell, an all-time high in the series that dates back to 2010. t.co/So9f2URG8u
— Lisa Abramowicz (@lisaabramowicz1) February 7, 2022
There’s Never Been a Worse Time to Buy a Home in a Poll of U.S. Households
The share of Americans who say it’s a good time to buy a house hit an all-time low of 25% in a monthly Fannie Mae survey.
The National Rent Index Is Up 17.8% Year-Over-Year, the BLS Says 3.3%
Let’s compare a real world measure to what the BLS says.