In 1963, with a median income of $6,200, you could have bought a home for about 3 times your annual income. In 2017, that ratio had increased to 5.2, with the median income being about $50,000 and the median cost of a house at $321,000. In two-thirds of America, the growth in the cost of housing is exceeding wage growth. I’ve included a cute little table below to show you the numbers, and you can see the sources below that. The reasons for this almost doubling in the cost of owning a home are numerous and complex. For example, since 1963, many families now have two instead of one incomes. But I doubt I could truly understand every aspect of the economic changes without a Ph.D. in the subject so instead, I’d like to focus on something useful, like what you can do if you just can’t afford to fork over 300 grand.
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