The housing market, for most people, seems like an unaffordable investment. For years, housing unaffordability was climbing, but not fast enough to keep average Americans from buying primary residences. Now, combine rising interest rates with all-time high appreciation, and the average renter can’t afford a home in most American metros. But how did this all come to be, and is there a chance that home affordability could get even lower than it stands today?
We wanted to know how affordability in the United States compared to other similar countries around the world. Although most Americans would call today’s real estate market completely unaffordable, the data seems to point to something different. There are numerous real estate markets around the country boasting low home prices, high rents, and population growth to support any investment decision. But where are these markets?
Dave does his best in this episode to give you a quick overview of how affordability works. We also talk about what causes housing markets to become unaffordable, which metro areas are the most and least unaffordable, and how the United States ranks when put head-to-head against other economies. Thankfully, there is some good news for landlords throughout this episode, so be sure to stick to the end!
Dave:
Hey, everyone. Welcome to On the Market. I’m your host, Dave Meyer. Today, we’re going to be talking about one of the most hot button issues in the entire economy, housing affordability, and we all know that housing affordability has been declining pretty steadily throughout the course of 2022. According to the National Association of REALTORS, which has been tracking housing affordability over the last couple of decades, housing has reached its least affordable point since 1989.
There are a lot of different ways that you can measure affordability, so we wanted to double-check that, and according to Black Knight, another really reliable data source, they actually think affordability…
