CHICAGO (NewsNation) — For middle-income Americans, it is likely harder to afford a new home as the national housing market is short more than 300,000 homes in the affordability range, according to data from the National Association of REALTORS®.
The study revealed that only about a quarter of homes on the market are affordable for the average American household, or those making $75,000 a year.
Just five years ago, nearly half of the listings on the market were affordable for the average American household. Now, middle-income buyers can only afford 23% of homes on the market.
Economic strategist Mitch Roschelle, the founder of Macro Trends Advisors and managing director of Madison Ventures Plus, recommended Americans start saving as much as they can if they are looking to buy a home.
“Start by saving as much as you can, because you’re probably going to need a bigger downpayment,” Roschelle said. “You don’t want to borrow as much as you would have because interest rates are up.”
His best advice for buyers: “Do your homework.”
When it comes to the market, Roschelle said it’s important to know what is available and what every house in the community has sold for. He explained a lot of people don’t do the extra work, but by knowing more about what is on the market, buyers will be able to pounce on houses when the timing is right.
Roschelle said the biggest issue right now is that the housing market has probably the lowest level of homes on the market in modern history.
“Before the financial crisis, we had 14 months supply of homes, that’s over a year’s worth of homes. Now, we have less than a three months supply. So part of the reason why things have been such slim pickings is what’s really driving up the price,” Roschelle said.
But he doesn’t see a housing crash in sight.
Roschelle said he thinks the low inventory of houses available is actually preventing a housing crash. He explained that Americans are creating more households than they are creating a new supply of homes.
“You would have thought with inflation and everything going on in the economy that we would have seen a housing crash, especially when interest rates doubled. But the fact of the matter is, supply remains low, which is really what’s keeping the prices high,” he said.