Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Houses cost 3.8 times median household earnings in 1973. In 2023 it’s 7.5, and that’s with more households having two incomes.

https://www.longtermtrends.net/home-price-median-annual-inco...



Yes but interest rates were higher and you generally needed 20% down to get a mortgage. The years of near zero interest and zero-equity financing inflated housing prices. Also with dual-income buyers, people could afford bigger and more highly-speced houses, and builders built these instead of "starter homes" because their costs were about the same so why would they not build what was more profitable for them (this is still the reason we don't have enough "affordable" housing being built, because there is still not enough supply of higher-end housing).

Not that it necessarily matters to someone looking for a modest first home today.


Not a bad uplift if you factor in the increase in the size of the median house:

https://247wallst.com/special-report/2016/05/25/the-size-of-...




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: