'State of the Nation's Housing': pricey
The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies released its State of the Nation's Housing report today, with sponsorship from the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Not much surprise in the basic summary: homeownership is up, but so are home prices, and so are risky choices like interest-only loans, and so are worries. The report says prospects are better for investment than for affordability. Overall, wages are not keeping up with the increased cost of housing, but the pinch is distributed unevenly: 33 of the 110 top U.S. metro areas have home prices more than four times their median incomes, while the report finds relative affordability in other places.
[Update: Via The Housing Bubble 2, here are Boston and San Diego perspectives on the study.]
[Further Update: More from the Washington Post via Mark Thoma.]
Not much surprise in the basic summary: homeownership is up, but so are home prices, and so are risky choices like interest-only loans, and so are worries. The report says prospects are better for investment than for affordability. Overall, wages are not keeping up with the increased cost of housing, but the pinch is distributed unevenly: 33 of the 110 top U.S. metro areas have home prices more than four times their median incomes, while the report finds relative affordability in other places.
[Update: Via The Housing Bubble 2, here are Boston and San Diego perspectives on the study.]
[Further Update: More from the Washington Post via Mark Thoma.]
posted by Liz Enochs at 8:57 AM
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