Housing Costs Outpace Wage Gains

The Center for Housing Policy, a coalition pushing for more affordable housing, released a report today that said in the past five years, the number of low and middle income working families (nationwide) paying more than half their incomes for housing has increased 76 percent. In 2003, 4.2 million working families spent more than half their income on housing, up from 2.4 million in 1997.

Housing prices are outpacing wage increases in many areas, meaning this trend will continue. In the Phoenix area, the cost of a home jumped almost 25% during the past year, while household incomes rose only 2%. This is a dangerous trend that we need to watch in our Phoenix real estate market!