National housing affordability has broadly declined compared with one year ago, especially for potential first-time home buyers. The median renter, who can also be considered the median first-time home buyer, could afford 34 percent of the homes for sale nationally in the first quarter of 2023, down from 45 percent a year earlier. The decline is ... Read More ›

As we celebrate International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, it’s important to reflect on the progress that women, and single women in particular, have made in achieving one of the main tenets of the American Dream – homeownership. Since 2019, the number of single, female-headed households (including widowed, separated, or divorced) has ... Read More ›

By all respects, 2022 was a tumultuous year for the housing market. Annual house price appreciation remained at a double-digit pace for most of the year, mortgage rates increased by nearly 4 percentage points in less than 12 months and, as a result, affordability plummeted. By October, housing affordability had declined by a record 68 percent ... Read More ›

The pandemic brought about both policies to protect homeowners from losing their homes – foreclosure moratoriums and forbearance programs – and concerns that a wave of foreclosures would crash upon the housing market once the protections ended. The wave did not materialize, and foreclosures remain near historic lows. Now, the Federal Reserve is ... Read More ›

As mortgage rates have steadily risen, affordability has decreased significantly for home buyers across income levels. However, affordability for the potential first-time home buyer – those currently renting – has faced the most pressure. Nationally, affordability for potential first-time home buyers declined 19 percentage points in June 2022 ... Read More ›

Following two years of red-hot activity accelerated by pandemic-era dynamics, the housing market is cooling as demand falls in response to a significant decline in affordability. Double-digit house-price appreciation chipped away at affordability as the pandemic-driven supply and demand imbalance fueled competition for a limited inventory of homes ... Read More ›