NEWS: Historic Home Affordability Issues Continue in 80 Percent of U.S. Markets

As the first quarter of 2022 comes to an end, more and more data continues to appear showing the constant increase in home prices, therefore issues in home affordability for most Americans.

Summarizing a recent article on The World Property Journal, the data collected continues to alert everyone because it is alarming how much the prices are on a constant rise. 

"It's certainly no surprise that affordability is more challenging today for prospective homebuyers than it was a year ago," said Rick Sharga, executive vice president of market intelligence for ATTOM. "Historically low mortgage rates and higher wages helped offset rising home prices over the past few years, but as home prices continue to soar and interest rates approach five percent on a 30-year fixed rate loan, more consumers are going to struggle to find a property they can comfortably afford."

As shown over several news in the past year, the post-pandemic market was drastically changed because of high number of buyers flooding the market. A decent amount of professionals with medium to high disposable income, mostly the ones that were able to continue to work remotely, started acquiring real estate much more than before. 

Throughout the pandemic, a glut of buyers has flooded the market, chasing an historically limited supply of homes for sale. This high demand was due to mortgage rates hovering around 3 percent, and in part because of the flight of urban renters leaving congested virus-prone areas for the perceived safety of a house and yard and the space for growing work-at-home lifestyles. As demand has spiked, prices have jumped beyond wage increases, damaging affordability.

Overall, about 80 percent of counties (461 of the 586 counties analyzed) in the U.S. have continue to drastically increase in prices and therefore affect their affordability index. 

Even though prices are getting alarmingly high, there are still a great number of benefits of acquiring Real Estate. For more details on it, check out this article: The Many Benefits of Homeownership.