{"id":7193,"date":"2021-08-11T06:00:28","date_gmt":"2021-08-11T10:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.sfloridaluxuryhomes.com\/?p=7193"},"modified":"2021-08-11T06:00:28","modified_gmt":"2021-08-11T10:00:28","slug":"are-houses-less-affordable-than-they-were-in-past-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.sfloridaluxuryhomes.com\/?p=7193","title":{"rendered":"Are Houses Less Affordable Than They Were in Past Decades?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"358\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.sfloridaluxuryhomes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/20210811-KCM-Share-549x300-1.jpg\" class=\"webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image\" alt=\"Are Houses Less Affordable Than They Were in Past Decades? | Simplifying The Market\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: block; margin-bottom: 5px; clear:both;max-width: 100%;\" link_thumbnail=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.sfloridaluxuryhomes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/20210811-KCM-Share-549x300-1.jpg 549w, https:\/\/files.simplifyingthemarket.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/10163257\/20210811-KCM-Share.jpg 750w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 549px) 100vw, 549px\"><\/p>\n<p>There are many headlines about how housing affordability is declining. The headlines are correct: it\u2019s less affordable to purchase a home today than it was a year ago. However, it\u2019s important to give this trend context. Is it less expensive to buy a house today than it was in 2005? What about 1995? What happens if we go all the way back to 1985? Or even 1975?<span id=\"more-44928\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Obviously, the price of a home has appreciated dramatically over the last 45 years. So have the prices of milk, bread, and just about every other consumable. <em>Prices rise over time<\/em> \u2013 we know it as <strong>inflation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>However, when we look at housing, <strong>price<\/strong> is just one component that makes up the monthly <strong>cost<\/strong> of the home. Another key factor is the mortgage rate at the time of purchase.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s look back at the <strong>cost<\/strong> of a home over the last five decades and adjust it for inflation by converting that cost to 2021 dollars. Here\u2019s the methodology for each data point of the table below:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Mortgage Amount<\/strong>: Take the median sales price at the end of the second quarter of each year <a href=\"https:\/\/fred.stlouisfed.org\/series\/MSPUS\">as reported by the Fed<\/a> and assume that the buyer made a 10% down payment.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mortgage Rate<\/strong>: Look at the monthly 30-year fixed rate for June of that year <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freddiemac.com\/pmms\/pmms30.html\">as reported by Freddie Mac<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>P&amp;I<\/strong>: Use a mortgage calculator to determine the monthly principal and interest on the loan.<\/li>\n<li><strong>In 2021 Dollars<\/strong>: Use an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usinflationcalculator.com\/\">inflation calculator<\/a> to determine what each payment would be when adjusted for inflation. Green means the homes were <strong>less expensive than today<\/strong>. Red means they were <strong>more expensive<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.sfloridaluxuryhomes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/20210811-MEM-Eng-1.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-44930\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.sfloridaluxuryhomes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/20210811-MEM-Eng-1.png\" alt=\"Are Houses Less Affordable Than They Were in Past Decades? | Simplifying The Market\" width=\"650\" height=\"488\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.sfloridaluxuryhomes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/20210811-MEM-Eng-1.png 1000w, https:\/\/files.simplifyingthemarket.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/10163259\/20210811-MEM-Eng-1-400x300.png 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\"><\/a><strong>As the chart shows, when adjusted for inflation, there were only two times in the last 45 years that it was less expensive to own a home than it is today.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Last year<\/strong>: Prices saw strong appreciation over the last year and mortgage rates have remained relatively flat. Therefore, affordability weakened.<\/li>\n<li><strong>2010<\/strong>: Home values plummeted after the housing crash 15 years ago. One-third of all sales were distressed properties (foreclosures or short sales). They sold at major discounts and negatively impacted the value of surrounding homes \u2013 <em>of course<\/em> homes were more affordable then.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>At every other point, even in 1975, <strong>it was more expensive to buy a home than it is today<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Bottom Line<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>If you want to buy a home, don\u2019t let the headlines about affordability discourage you. You can\u2019t get the deal your friend got last year, but you will get a better deal than your parents did 20 years ago and your grandparents did 40 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Content previously posted on Keeping Current Matters<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"358\" src=\"https:\/\/files.simplifyingthemarket.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/10163257\/20210811-KCM-Share-549x300.jpg\" class=\"webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image\" alt=\"Are Houses Less Affordable Than They Were in Past Decades? | Simplifying The Market\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: block;margin-bottom: 5px;clear:both;max-width: 100%\">There are many headlines about how housing affordability is declining. The headlines are correct: it\u2019s less affordable to purchase a home today than it was a year ago. However, it\u2019s important to give this trend context. Is it less expensive to buy a house today than it was in 2005? What about 1995? What happens [\u2026]<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,134,84,118,121],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-buying-myths","category-for-buyers","category-interest-rates","category-pricing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sfloridaluxuryhomes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sfloridaluxuryhomes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sfloridaluxuryhomes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sfloridaluxuryhomes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sfloridaluxuryhomes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sfloridaluxuryhomes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7193\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sfloridaluxuryhomes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sfloridaluxuryhomes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sfloridaluxuryhomes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}