A house was put up for sale in my 'hood recently. So I obviously searched the internet right away to see what they were asking for and was surprised to see the price (I live in a working-class mixed-race neighborhood not some rich-people-enclave). My first thought was "who can afford these prices?".
But that's the reality of trying to afford to live in this country.
Thus, I wasn't surprised to see a NYTimes article today titled "U.S. home sales stumble as prices hit record high".
Home prices are going up, but at the same time employers and corporations are not increasing wages for workers. So I'm not sure how society is supposed to function properly when everybody is in debt: medical, utility bills, college loans, car payments, and now the inflated (I belive) price of housing.
According to the NYTimes article, the median house price jumped 6.5 percent from a year ago to an all-time high of $263,800 in June. How are young millennial families first starting out supposed to afford a home at those prices?
According to the article, the increase in the price of houses is a result of many different factors, including:
"Homebuilders are struggling to plug the inventory gap amid rising costs of lumber. Homebuilding is also being constrained by shortages of labour and land."
And then there's Trump, who keeps saying #MAGA. Yet I don't see any solutions to this most important problem of affording a house. This week, the only thing congress seems to want to accomplish is #Trumpcare which would actually mean more medical debt for the working-class. Because it would include the decimation of Medicaid which would make things worse for medical emergencies and senior care in the future.
But back to home prices, The NYTimes article is an interesting if somewhat depressing read (link below)
https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2017/07/24/business/24reuters-usa-economy.html
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