For The Average American, Owning A Home Is Increasingly Unaffordable

One month ago, in its traditionally cheerful assessment of the US housing market, the NAR's Larry Yun snuck in an unexpected warning:

"Home prices ascending near or above double-digit appreciation aren't healthy – especially considering the fact that household income and wages are barely rising."

He did it again just a few days ago:

"The overall demand for buying is still solid entering the busy spring season, but home prices and rents outpacing wages and anxiety about the health of the economy are holding back a segment of would-be buyers."

This is about as close to a warning that the US housing market is back into bubble territory as one can hope to get from the NAR.

Overnight, we got another confirmation of American runaway - if only for the vast majority of people - home prices, when RealtyTrac released its Q1 2016 Home Affordability Index, which showed that in Q1 2016, 9% of U.S. county housing markets were less affordable than their historically normal levels, up from 2 percent of markets that exceeded historic home affordability levels a year ago.

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