Owning a home now takes a bigger chunk of Americans’ incomes

The major costs that go with owning a home — mortgage payments, insurance, taxes — now eat up about 34% of the average wage nationwide, up three percent from a year ago, according to a report out Thursday from the real estate data firm ATTOM. Despite home prices fluctuating and mortgage rates ticking down, that means that owning a home remains an unsustainable long-term expense for many Americans.

The ATTOM report cites a rule of thumb among lenders: that homeowners shouldn’t dedicate much more than 28% of their monthly income toward housing.

Now, ATTOM’s data shows people are spending about a third on it. That, plus car loan payments, plus student loan payments?

“That doesn’t give you a lot leftover for just the basics, food, utilities, savings, anything like that,” said Guy Cecala with the research firm Inside Mortgage Finance.

This situation is a result of the current mix of high mortgage rates and high home prices; it also comes as a wave of millennials and even Gen Zers are forming their own households, points out Rick Sharga, who leads the market intelligence firm CJ Patrick Company and used to work for ATTOM. 

“The majority of them would like to buy a house, and, in today’s economy, it’s very difficult for them to be able to afford to do that,” he said.

We’ve seen cycles like this before, said Sharga — back in the ’80s and ’90s. And the market will start to feel, and even be, more accessible over time.