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U.S. home prices are the most unaffordable they've been in nearly 100 years

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Re: U.S. home prices are the most unaffordable they've been in nearly 100 years

#2
This is to be expected. Sellers are always reluctant to be reasonable when they are on the wrong side of a peak. The raising of interest rates means prices have to adjust. But after so many years of increasing prices sellers are not yet rational.

And yes, some more inventory would help. That said, as the population ages, who is going to buy all the McMansions? Price not only need to adjust to interest rate but demographics.

Re: U.S. home prices are the most unaffordable they've been in nearly 100 years

#8
post #6
post #3

With high interest rates, payment to income would likely be even worse. I have a hard time seeing how this can be anything but a major problem in a few years, if not before.

Prices will reset to accommodate.

You sound very confident. Not that I disagree, necessarily, but do you care to elaborate?

Re: U.S. home prices are the most unaffordable they've been in nearly 100 years

#9

This is to be expected. Sellers are always reluctant to be reasonable when they are on the wrong side of a peak. The raising of interest rates means prices have to adjust. But after so many years of increasing prices sellers are not yet rational. And yes, some more inventory would help. That said, as the population ages, who is going to buy all the McMansions? Price not only need to adjust to interest rate but demogr…

> as the population ages, who is going to buy all the McMansions?

The McMansions will be unlivable by that point. They weren't built to last.

Re: U.S. home prices are the most unaffordable they've been in nearly 100 years

#10
From 1950 to 2008 the USA built ~25 million homes per (edit, not year) decade. From 2008 to 2018 it was about 7 million. In recent years building rates have mostly recovered but there's still that gap in production combined with everything else the last handful of years.

This isn't to discount the shift of ownership from human persons to corporate persons, that's a factor too. But just numbers of available houses versus population plays a role.

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