Housing Affordability
Data from really track shows that one third of US counties are less affordable today than they were in 2000! This report calculated the percentage of median income needed to make monthly payments on a median priced home in each county, as well as their historical trend in each county’s income, the price affordability percentage going back to January 2000.
There were 1200 counties analyzed in 2014 and none of them are near the danger marks reached during the housing bubble! Plus, should interest rates increase by one percentage point only 59 counties, which represent about 2% of the US population would be at or above the housing bubble levels in terms of affordability.
But, on the cautionary side, one third of the counties analyzed which represents 19% of the total population in those counties, are now less affordable than their long-term averages.
Lastly, I’d like to note that this survey was done in 2014, when home mortgage rates are at historical lows, so, the likelihood of interest rates rising in the next few years well over 1% (from the 2014 low rates) is a distinct possibility. Such a jump in home mortgage rates would have a devastating effect on home affordability.
More information on this, see Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
