Cost of home ownership highest since 2007: Research

Median-priced, single-family home and condo costs continue to be less affordable than in the past, according to a second quarter analysis released Wednesday.

ATTOM, a firm that curates land, property and real estate data, culled housing information from 99 percent of U.S. counties and found the pandemic-era trend of high residential mortgage rates and elevated home prices hasn’t slowed.

ATTOM’s research also found that expenses on median-priced homes now take up about 35.1 percent of the average national wage — the highest since 2007. Experts generally set the guideline at about 28 percent on that figure.

The national median home price hit a record $360,000 during the spring. With mortgage rates coming in at about 7 percent, the cost of owning a home has outpaced recent increases in wages, according to the research.

“The latest affordability data presents a clear challenge for home buyers. While home prices are increasing and mortgage rates remain relatively high, these factors are making homes less affordable,” ATTOM CEO Rob Barber said in the company’s analysis. “It’s common for these trends to intensify during the spring buying season when buyer demand increases. However, the trends this year are particularly challenging for house hunters, more so than at any point since the housing market boom began in 2012.”

Average 30-year mortgage rates ended the quarter at about 6.9 percent, more than double where they were in 2021.

Real estate company Redfin earlier this year concluded that it was more expensive than ever to buy a home in the U.S., with home prices averaging about $383,725 during the four-week period ending April 21.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said at an event in Portugal this week that the central bank needs to see better inflation readings in the economy before dropping interest rates.

“We want to be more confident that inflation is moving sustainably down toward 2 percent before we start the process of reducing how tight our policy is, of loosening policy,” he said.