Is U.S. housing unaffordable? Depends on how you chart it

affordabl-housingBy Nick Timiraos | The  Wall Street Journal

Rising home prices and interest rates made housing less affordable last year than at any time in the last five years, according to data released Tuesday by the National Association of Realtors.

So is it time to sound the siren over a housing bubble? Not really. Nationally, the Realtors’ housing affordability index shows that, excluding the last five years, homes for the U.S. as a whole are still more affordable than at any time since at least 1981.

Two charts help explain what’s going on here. Bubble fears are being fanned by this chart comparing median home prices to household incomes.  Robert Albertson, chief strategist at Sandler O’Neill + Partners LP, produced a report last November titled “Another Housing Bubble” that featured the price-to-income chart prominently.

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