By NAHB
A new quarterly Cost of Housing Index unveiled today by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and Wells Fargo underscores the housing affordability crisis in America by revealing that in the first quarter of 2024, 38% of a typical family’s income was needed to make a mortgage payment on a median priced new single-family home in the United States. Low-income families, defined as those earning only 50% of the area’s median income, would have to spend 77% of their earnings to pay for the same new home.
The figures track closely for the purchase of existing homes in the U.S. as well. A typical family would have to pay 36% of their income for a median-priced existing home while a low-income family would need to pay 71% of their earnings to make the same mortgage payment.
“The Cost of Housing Index clearly shows that a growing shortage of affordable housing is hurting families and communities nationwide and that local, state and federal officials must act on this issue,” said NAHB Chairman Carl Harris, a custom home builder from Wichita, Kan. “NAHB has released a 10-point plan to tackle the housing affordability crisis that focuses on the need to address excessive regulations, inefficient local zoning rules, costly building codes, and many other factors that are dramatically affecting home prices and preventing builders from constructing more attainable, affordable housing.”
