It feels strange to write about housing affordability during a pandemic with high unemployment. Even though mortgage rates are down the cost of housing is outpacing wage growth.
According to the National Association of Realtors affordability has declines which is a kind of backward way of saying the housing is less affordable:
“Affordability is down in two of the four regions from last month. The South had a gain of 1.8% followed by the Midwest with an incline of 2.3%. The Northeast had a decline of 1.1% followed by the West with a dip of 2.3%.”
Housing is more affordable in the Midwest than in other parts of the country but went up 2.3% from a year ago. . . which means it is more unaffordable than it was a year ago.
*the chart is a screen print from the National Association of Realtors web site.
