House prices vs. income : Rooftop Views

Rooftop Views

House prices vs. income

Our friends at the Census Bureau have recently confirmed something that we all probably already knew. Personal income isn't keeping up with housing prices.

It is particularly bad on the coasts where double digit housing price increases have been the norm for the past few years. But mid-America is suffering as well. Defined as those who pay at least 30% of their incomes on rent or home mortgages, the Bureau sees housing affordability decreasing in places like New York City (DUH!), Loudoun County, Virginia and Bastrop County, Texas.

However, the place in the country with the largest increase in price of housing vs. income is Olathe, Kansas, which is a suburb of Kansas City. Others included Temecula, California as well as Boulder, Colorado and College Station, Texas. Of course, suburbs around New York City and Los Angeles are also showing effects of the housing price increase.

The Census Bureau indicates that those with the highest numbers of homeowners shelling out more than 30% of their income are those in poorer areas where the gap between income and housing prices is most prevalent. That includes El Monte, California, a Los Angeles suburb, had the highest percentage of mortgage holders, 73%, spending more than 30% of their income on housing. In Newark, the figure was 72%; in El Cajon, California, east of San Diego, 69%; and in South Gate, California, 69%.