Housing Affordability Hits a Crisis Level

By:

Builder Magazine interviews Joel Kotkin

In:

Builder Magazine

The housing shortage is affecting a wide range of buyers – from first-time to low-income to middle-income ones, especially in expensive metro areas.

In most major metropolitan areas of the nation, housing has been affordable for middle-income households since World War II. The median house price tended to be approximately three times the median household income. But in the past several years housing prices in some metropolitan areas have far outpaced incomes.