The United States Is Suffering From An Affordable Housing Crisis
The cost of living is much higher today than it was when your parents were born. In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s consumer price index (CPI), prices today are nearly ten times higher than they were in 1960.
While this inflation rate affects nearly every aspect of life, it is arguably the most daunting and tolling when trying to find housing.
According to new data published by Pew Research Center, there is an affordable housing crisis in the United States.
Forty-nine percent of Americans reported that finding affordable housing is a significant problem in their local community.
And a whopping seventy percent believe that young adults today face greater home-buying obstacles than older generations.
A major factor contributing to the affordability crisis is lackluster salary increases compared to the cost of living.
Additionally, there is a house-supply shortage following a period of low home construction rates.
Finally, the pandemic led many to retreat from highly-populated and predominantly rental areas in pursuit of purchasing suburban homes.
This home-purchasing rush resulted in all-time-low mortgage interest rates.
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Nonetheless, hopeful home buyers are not alone in this struggle. Rental properties still represent roughly thirty-five percent of American households, and renters are experiencing their own strain in the face of astronomical living costs.
In fact, the average cost of rent in the U.S. has steadily risen eighteen percent since 2017. These price gauges left forty-six percent of Americans spending thirty percent or more of their income on rental costs in 2020.
Moreover, at least twenty percent were forced to spend fifty percent or more of their income on housing costs.
U.S. residents located in the west are experiencing the highest rental costs overall, with a shocking twenty-one percent price increase in five years.
Residents living in the northeast and south are tied with the national average rent. And residents in the midwest are experiencing the lowest cost of rent– yet still at an eighteen percent increase since 2017.
As if these figures are not terrifying enough, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Survey of Consumer Expectations has found that U.S. residents anticipate a ten percent rent increase this year alone.
This growth rate will outpace the costs of any other commodities.
To read the complete report findings, visit the link here.
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