Category: Affordability

Tata’s Nano Home: Company behind world’s cheapest car to sell $7,800 apartments

Posted by: Prashant Gopal on May 07

Tata, the Indian company that made worldwide headlines with its $2,000 Nano car, now plans to build 1,000 tiny apartments outside Mumbai that will sell for $7,800 to $13,400 each….

Housing Affordability: A California snap shot

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on February 21

The latest numbers from the California Association of Realtors suggest homes in the Golden State have been getting a little more affordable. The percentage of households that could buy an…

Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey

Posted by: Peter Coy on February 12

Demographia, a research firm, has just released its fourth annual international housing affordability survey, and it’s worth a look. Especially since, unlike some similar surveys, it’s free on the…

High Cost of Smart Growth

Posted by: Peter Coy on May 30

Are restrictive zoning laws making housing unaffordable? There’s a strong argument that the high cost of housing in markets like New York, Boston, and San Francisco is at least partly…

Taxpayer-backed mortgages for undocumented immigrants?

Posted by: Dean Foust on December 14

The governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, recently unveiled a proposal that garnered controversy almost before he even finished his speech: He wants to create a new state-backed mortgage loan program…

Don’t forget the Jumbo risk

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on December 01

Shame on the California Association of Realtors! The trade association for real estate agents is complaining that this week’s decision by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to lift their single…

A Fun Website for Checking Affordability

Posted by: Peter Coy on November 23

Can an elementary school teacher afford a median-priced house in San Diego? Can a police officer afford a median-priced house in Miami? Can a graphic designer afford a median-priced house…

How do twenty-somethings afford houses? Here’s how

Posted by: Dean Foust on October 26

The Washington Post recently published an interesting article on the challenge faced by individuals in their 20s and early 30s trying to buy houses in overheated markets like D.C. The…

A nail in the coffin of housing?

Posted by: Dean Foust on October 17

I’m struck by how little attention was paid last week to the proposals released by a special commission Bush created to address the coming train wreck created by the Alternative…

Mortgage Abuse?

Posted by: Amey Stone on October 11

I wrote a story earlier this month about how your stock and bond portfolio — not just your home’s value — could take a hit if the real estate market…

A history lesson

Posted by: Dean Foust on August 18

Another interesting report out today from Merrill Lynch’s crack economics team. North American economist David Rosenberg notes that thanks to the ongoing runup in housing prices, the affordability ratio for…

Affordability drops, yet sales surge

Posted by: Amey Stone on July 29

We already know that home prices surged yet again in June. On a national basis, the median price of an existing home (as opposed to a newly built home) jumped…

All house, no furniture

Posted by: Amey Stone on July 05

Here’s a new trend a colleague just told me about — in certain New York suburbs, buyers are putting so much of their savings and monthly income into the purchase…

Washington DC bubble?

Posted by: Dean Foust on July 05

In response to my earlier posting questioning whether home prices were outstripping income gains, one reader (IDed as “Audiorich”) writes… “Not in the Washington D.C. area! House prices here may…

Home prices outstripping income gains

Posted by: Dean Foust on June 30

The FDIC—the federal agency that regulates many banks—released a report on Tuesday that got scant attention but offers interesting insights as to whether we can sustain the kind of appreciation…