By Jann Swanson
Posted To: MND NewsWire
The old maxim that a household rents only until it can afford to buy a home is apparently being stood on its head in a lot of housing markets. A study published on Friday by Zillow says that “rental affordability is as bad as it’s ever been.” Nationally, in fact, they found it is consuming nearly twice as much of a family’s monthly income as would homeownership and in many markets that ratio is even higher. In the fourth quarter of 2014 Zillow found that, in the U.S. as a whole, households are spending 30.1 percent of their income for a rental while, with a Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI) of $178,700 and historically low interest rates they would spend 15.3 percent on an owned home. According to Zillow’s February Real Estate Market Reports, the ZHVI above reflects a 4.9 percent year-over-year…(read more)
Via:: Affordability Falling as Permits Lag Growth
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