Lower-Income Renters Pay Almost 2/3 of Their Income on Even Modest Apartments
Mortgage affordability – the share of median household income needed to afford a typical U.S. home – reached 17.5 percent in the second quarter 2018, higher than it’s been in nine years.
Price Cuts Becoming More Common, Especially at the High End
The share of pricier homes available for sale at a discount from their original list price is growing, even as sellers of less-expensive homes seem somewhat less willing to consider a price cut.
Why Millennials Are Struggling to Become Homeowners
Young, highly-educated millennials earn more than typical American workers, make up a growing share of the population in some of the nation’s fastest-growing and most-dynamic cities, and are disproportionately likely to work in well-paid tech jobs. And still, they're struggling to become homeowners. Why?
The 9-to-5 Compromise: What We Save by Moving 15 Minutes Farther From Work
In most of the nation’s almost three dozen largest metro markets, owning or renting a home close to downtown is a prize worth paying for. But in some, this proximity is a penalty. And the divide says as much about our evolving housing preferences as it does the current state of America’s urban revival.
A Greater Share of Rentals Are Out of Reach for Blacks, Hispanics
The typical black household could spend twice as much of their paycheck on rent as a workaday Asian household and still afford fewer rentals. In Boston, a typical white household can afford 34 times as many rental listings as a typical Hispanic household.
Buying a Home Is Less Affordable Than It’s Been in Almost a Decade
A combination of rising mortgage rates and strong home value appreciation led to one of the largest quarter-over-quarter increases in the mortgage burden for homebuyers since the Great Recession.
Rising Trend of Stay-at-Home Dads Hits All-Time High
The overall share of U.S. children living with a full-time, stay-at-home parent was unchanged in 2017 compared to 2016, and has remained largely flat since the mid-1990s. But even as full-time, stay-at-home parenting overall has stabilized, the share of stay-at-home dads has reached an all-time high.
Birth Rates Dropped Most in Counties Where Home Values Grew Most
A recent decline in fertility was sharpest in counties where home values rose the most, and the change was smaller—and sometimes even up —where home value growth was weaker.
Construction Worker Wages Are Growing Incredibly Fast
Residential construction worker wages are growing at a 5 percent annual pace, almost double the 2.9 percent pace of wage growth for all workers -- as clear a signal as any of the depth of labor shortages home builders face as they struggle to ramp up building as their costs keep rising.
Having low credit can come with a lot of high costs. A borrower with a “fair” credit score could pay 7 percent more over the life of a 30-year mortgage for the same home as an otherwise identical borrower with an “excellent” score.
