{"id":20349,"date":"2018-06-27T05:00:03","date_gmt":"2018-06-27T12:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/?p=20349"},"modified":"2026-02-22T15:30:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T23:30:39","slug":"myth-or-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/myth-or-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"Myth or Reality?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"is<\/a>Conflicting research has many housing professionals\u2014and house hunters\u2014wondering if the nation has reached an affordability crisis or not. There are a few factors that influence why reputable sources are coming up with such different perspectives.<\/p>\n

Is there an affordability crisis?<\/strong><\/p>\n

First American Financial Corp says no. A recent research summary<\/a> posits that while home prices and mortgage rates have been increasing, the nation isn\u2019t near crisis mode.<\/p>\n

CoreLogic\u2019s Home Price Index reports that home prices\u00a0increased<\/a>\u00a07 percent year-over-year. The Primary Mortgage Market Survey issued by\u00a0Freddie Mac\u00a0shows the recent mortgage rate has increase to its highest<\/a>\u00a0since 2013.<\/p>\n

First American Financial Corp suggests that the nation is not in crisis mode because while home prices and mortgages rates have increased, incomes have also increased. Most states have reached income levels that exceed their 2007 peak. Many incomes are higher than they\u2019ve been in more than a decade.<\/p>\n

The organization\u2019s conclusion: there is no crisis, just a casual decrease in affordability.<\/p>\n

Additional factors<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just home prices, mortgage rates, and incomes we must consider.<\/p>\n

Non-housing cost of living increases play a practical role in housing affordability for households. These costs have been rising for most of the nation, with six cities experiencing the steepest increases.<\/p>\n

GOBankingRates<\/a> lists Atlanta; Denver; Eugene, Ore.; Nashville; Portland; and Seattle as cities with the highest spikes in non-housing cost of living. Healthcare, groceries, transportation and utilities are among the expenses that consume residents resources and contribute to the inability to afford housing.<\/p>\n

While incomes have increased over the years, housing costs have increased faster. The rising cost of non-housing expenses make affordability more challenging. An earner spends 29.1 percent of their income on a median-priced home. The established recommendation for affordability is 30 percent of income, which brings the average wage earner woefully close. When combined with the rising cost of living\u2014meaning more cash towards health, food, clothing, and utilities–people have less cash to allocate towards housing. They also have less wiggle room to stretch when local properties exceed 30 percent of their income.<\/p>\n

When factoring in cost of living changes, ATTOM Data Solutions<\/a>\u00a0reports that 41 percent of the markets studied are less affordable than historic averages. Median home prices were not affordable for 68 percent of wage earners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Conflicting research has many housing professionals\u2014and house hunters\u2014wondering if the nation has reached an affordability crisis or not. There are a few factors that influence why reputable sources are coming up with such different perspectives. Is there an affordability crisis? First American Financial Corp says no. A recent research summary posits that while home prices […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":440,"featured_media":20350,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_s2mail":"yes","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3236,4],"tags":[26,739,94],"class_list":["post-20349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-affordable-housing","category-news","tag-affordable-housing","tag-housing-market","tag-market-trends"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nYardi Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Conflicting research has many housing professionals\u2014and house hunters\u2014wondering if the nation has reached an affordability crisis or not. 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