Washington, DC CNN —Buying a house requires a much bigger slice of people’s income now — making this the most unaffordable housing market since 1984, by one measure.
The number of cost-burdened renters increased by 1.2 million, to a record 21.6 million households, between 2019 and 2021.
In all, 40.6 million households were housing-cost burdened in 2021, including 20.3 million who were severely burdened.
Affordability picture remains grim this yearHopeful house hunters continued to face challenging affordability conditions in July as rising mortgage rates and historically low housing inventory pushed prices higher, said Edward Seiler, the Mortgage Bankers Association’s associate vice president for housing economics.
“Unfortunately, given today’s lack of inventory and affordability levels, it may take years before home affordability returns to more ‘normal’ levels,” he said.
Persons:
Black Knight, Knight, “, ”, Andy Walden, Edward Seiler, Seiler, Joel Kan, Walden, ” It’s
Organizations:
DC CNN, Federal Reserve, Black, Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, Mortgage, Moody’s Investors Service
Locations:
Washington