The simple answer is yes, plenty of people can still afford to buy homes. The houses can sell at these prices because people are still buying them.
To your 2nd question, there really isn't anything that can be done to fix it, except to wait for it to fix itself generally.
The reason for these houses becoming more expensive really isn't a simple or 1 reason problem, its actually a multi variable equation. I am going to list a few causes for housing prices to go up, however, there is plenty more than what I listed.
1. Inflation has caused house prices to go up, $200,000 is equal to $310,000 today
2. Supply and demand right now since late 2019. There are more people trying to buy homes right now, then there are homes to sell. For 2021 alone, House for Sell inventory went down by 17% while home buyers had gone up by 20%
3. People, instead of selling their homes when they move, they opt to rent it out instead. Many people are finding it to be worth more, to just rent your home out, rather than sell it right away.
4. Big companies are now getting into the renting home games as well. Companies have found it very easy to buy a home, fix it up, and then rent it out. These companies usually buy the homes around $10,000 above asking price in cash, then rent them out. These companies doing this, on average, can make $100,000 yearly on just renting out 4 homes. These companies also own more than just 4 homes, and then sell these fixed up homes later for way more than what they bought them for a few years down the line, 1 study showed 1 company, did this and with just 1 home, they made over $900,000 in profit in 2 years.
5. The housing market bubble pop in 2007 had caused a lot of damage to the housing market, actually seeing many peoples mortgages actually doubling in the aftermath of the great recession and that pop
Cities should relax zoning to allow denser construction. Over 90% of the city of Seattle is zoned for single-family housing. The land where apartments can be built is therefore quite valuable, making apartment construction, and apartment rents very expensive.
Materials costs are going up, but even more expensive are all the so-called "greener" building codes. Those costs are passed on to the home owners.
Nope. Tried to house hunt early this year even with 200k gifted to us we couldn't get in to the bottom of the market.
Opinion
8Opinion
Agree, It seems to be getting worse out there! Bought a few hrs ago when I could afford it, I feel like I couldn’t now. We need to build a better housing supply. With more supply there’s less demand and competition, so values tend to stabilize
No.
If they could afford a home they would pay cash. Most people are stuck with a decades long mortgage not to mention taxes , cost of maintenance etc. For many Americans the house will be their single biggest expense.
A lot of Americans better get used to living in Apartments.
Decent homes in decent neighborhoods will be a luxury for a select few in particular in areas like L. A. New York City, Chicago, San Diego, Miami and a few other major cities.
It’s tough in these times to buy a home I have a home with the mortgage paid off
I am not sure if it was just as difficult for me to buy a house 30years ago when I was only earning about 20K a year.
people can if they plan early and work towards it. Most needs a second income though. Married or two people working for it. One person can not do it and pay all of the other bills that come with it. food, insurance, vehicles and so on.
The market will collapse eventually. Prices will go down.
I for one cannot afford my own place. 😅
The only opinion from girls was selected the Most Helpful Opinion, but you can still contribute by sharing an opinion!
Superb Opinion