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The median home sale price in the US has jumped by nearly 30% since the end of 2019, hitting $420,000 this spring.
At a time of rising property values globally, the leap has been one of the most dramatic in the world, according to the International Monetary Fund.
And that’s not factoring in the added costs from higher interest rates, which now stand at roughly 7% for the 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage that is typical in the US, up from about 3% in 2020.
Homebuyers today need an annual income of more than $100,000 - well above the country’s household median of about $75,000 - to comfortably afford a home in most places in the US, research firms such as Zillow and Bankrate say, and face monthly payments that have roughly doubled in just four years.
Me and my SO bought our house 15 years ago. Add to that she was a shrewd negotiator who pitted a few banks’ offers against each other for an even lower rate.
Yet even back then, the only way we were able to put down a down payment for a modest house in a modest environment was because both my and her parents had saved something up and were willing to do this for us. If we’d been kicked out at 18 with no kind of support we’d still be renting today, no doubt.
So I can definitely appreciate that we were among the lucky ones, and even back then it was already hard. My heart bleeds for young people today, especially knowing it’ll get a whole lot worse before it ever gets better, IF it ever does…
13 years ago I bought my childhood home from my parents. They basically gifted me the down payment and my dad helped me update it. I was exceptionally lucky them and I’d have no chance in hell buying a house now.
15 years ago housing prices crashed to - in most places in the US anyway - crazy low prices. It was definitely a good time to buy.