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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed

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To: Skeeter Bug who wrote (96961)	4/20/2001 7:06:59 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) of 436258

OK,here's a couple more things on housing affordability - it's clear that housing became less affordable between 1970 and 1980 - housing prices tripled but income only doubled - since then the ratio of housing to median family income has stayed roughly the same - using data from the Census Statistical Abstracts, I came up with the following table of data: Year Median Family Income Median New Home Price Ratio Current Dollars Current Dollars 1970 9867 23400 .42 1975 11800 39300 .30 1980 21023 64600 .33 1985 27735 84300 .33 1990 35353 122900 .29 1995 40611 133900 .30 1998 46737 152500 .31 In the 2000 Census, look at Table 744 for median family income and table 1199 for median new house price. In the 1995 census, family income is Table 724 and house price is Table 1216. census.gov This is confirmed by the data on Table 1206 of the 2000 Census - using data from an annual survey of recent home buyers by Chicago Title - average monthly mortgage payment as a percent of income has remained relatively constant since 1980 - but housing was more affordable in 1976. census.gov Median family income is only available in 5 year increments so I can't pin-point the exact year that housing prices vis-a-vis family income changed, but the big jump in housing prices in the 1970's was as follows: 1970 23400 1971 25200 1972 27600 1973 32500 1974 35900 1975 39300 1976 44200 1977 48800 1978 55700 1979 62900 1980 64600 Houses also got bigger, they got central air, and other modernizations so it wasn't just inflation, it was a change in the type of housing being built. As for proving to you that a married couple with kids and a stay-at-home mom can buy a house as easily today in Seattle or anywhere else, as they could in the past - sorry, that wasn't what I set out to prove. The mythical median family could buy the mythical median house as easily in 1999 as in 1980.

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