{"id":715241,"date":"2026-06-20T09:19:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T09:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/715241\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T09:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T09:19:14","slug":"income-required-to-afford-a-median-priced-home-has-almost-doubled-since-2020-report-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/715241\/","title":{"rendered":"Income required to afford a median-priced home has almost doubled since 2020, report finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new report on the US\u00a0housing\u00a0sector<\/a> finds that activity remains subdued through the first part of the year as high costs<\/a> suppress demand.<\/p>\n

The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University released its annual\u00a0\u201cState of the Nation\u2019s Housing\u201d report<\/a>\u00a0on Wednesday, which found that existing home sales remain near the lowest level in three decades that was first reached in 2023.<\/p>\n

Sales of new homes remained relatively unchanged, while rental<\/a> retention rates rose and new occupancies declined. <\/p>\n

New construction starts dipped one percent over the last year, driven by a seven percent decline in single-family starts.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough supply shortages<\/a> are still a major concern, depressed demand became a headline in housing over the past year,\u201d the report said, noting slower growth in the number of homeowner households as well as the number of renters<\/a> compared with a year ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The rate of growth of homeowner households declined by half and caused\u00a0homeownership rates\u00a0to decline<\/a> for the second straight year. <\/p>\n

\"AA new report on the US\u00a0housing\u00a0sector finds that activity remains subdued through the first part of the year as high costs suppress demand. Angelov \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Additionally, the year-over-year increase in the number of renters<\/a> in the first quarter of 2026 was less than half of what it was a year earlier.<\/p>\n

Economic uncertainty\u00a0has weighed on housing<\/a> demand, with employment growth<\/a> slowing from a gain of 1.5 million in 2024 to just 116,000 in 2025.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Consumer confidence\u00a0dropped by more than 20 percentage points in 2025 and fell further in the first part of 2026 due to the Iran war<\/a>, reaching an all-time low in April.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout a job<\/a>, graduates are less likely to form a new household or move to a new region,\u201d the report said. <\/p>\n

\"AEconomic uncertainty\u00a0has weighed on housing demand, with employment growth slowing from a gain of 1.5 million in 2024 to just 116,000 in 2025. William \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout confidence in employment, families are less likely to move or make a big purchase like a house.\u201d<\/p>\n

High costs and the lack of\u00a0affordable housing\u00a0options<\/a> are also contributing to the weaker demand, as households are struggling with high home prices and interest rates.<\/p>\n

The report said that the median prices for new and existing homes are both over $400,000 and that existing home prices have risen 54 percent since 2020 and are about five times the median income<\/a> \u2013 a level well above the ratio of three times that prevailed in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

Mortgage rates<\/a>\u00a0are over six percent, which makes the payment on a median-priced home $3,100 in the fourth quarter of 2025, up from $1,700 in early 2020.<\/p>\n

That has pushed the income needed to afford that payment to more than $120,000 \u2013 a significant increase from $66,000 in 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new report on the US\u00a0housing\u00a0sector finds that activity remains subdued through the first part of the year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[12832,28,2053,3425,1170,21],"class_list":["post-715241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-affordability","tag-business","tag-housing","tag-income","tag-real-estate","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}