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Thursday, June 05, 2014

Half of Americans Can't Afford Their House

As the housing market slowly recovers, a majority of homeowners and renters are finding it hard to meet rising rents and mortgage payments, new research finds.

Over half of Americans (52%) have had to make at least one major sacrifice in order to cover their rent or mortgage over the last three years, according to the “How Housing Matters Survey,” which was commissioned by the nonprofit John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and carried out by Hart Research Associates. These sacrifices include getting a second job, deferring saving for retirement, cutting back on health care, running up credit card debt, or even moving to a less safe neighborhood or one with worse schools.

“Affordability issues are real and a major hurdle,” says Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, an industry group. Home prices have increased 20% over the past two years while wages have barely gone up, he says. “Only by adding more new supply, via housing starts, can home prices be tamed,” Yun adds. In fact, construction of housing units has averaged around 1.5 million a year for the past five decades, he says, but it’s likely to be less than 1 million in 2014.

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Due to Taxes and Fee's in Wicomico County, I can no longer afford my house!

Anonymous said...

I would say OVER 1/2 of Americans can't even afford to live in Obama's nightmare version of America regardless of their house...
Like Palin said ”How’s that hope and change thing working out for you?”

Anonymous said...

If we had jobs, we would have no problem with the payments. What part of this don't you understand?

Anonymous said...

go to work for the government you don't have to do a good job if you actually do any work at all and you get a big fat bonus plus it almost impossible to get fired. Aint Obamaland just wonderful.