Changes in Texas as High-Paid IT Company Directors Move In... Housing Prices Soar

Decrease in Affordable Homes for US Middle Class
"Hard to Own a Home" Also Complained in the US

As U.S. home prices soar, the availability of homes affordable to the middle class has significantly decreased. Consequently, complaints about the difficulty of "owning a home" are spreading in the U.S., similar to South Korea.

On the 11th (local time), The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that the rise in home prices, which began in California, has spread to surrounding areas such as Texas and is now expanding nationwide across the United States.

Texas, USA. [Image source=Pixabay]

According to the report, California's home prices skyrocketed as IT industry workers flocked to the state. This rapid increase in home prices is also occurring in other regions, with the most notable surge observed in Texas.

According to statistics from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, two-thirds of homes in San Antonio, Texas, were affordable to the middle class in 2014, but by the end of last year, this proportion had dropped to less than one-third. In Dallas, another major city in Texas, more than half of the homes were affordable to the middle class in 2014, but by the end of last year, this ratio fell to less than one-third.

The Dallas Fed defines homes affordable to the middle class as those that a median-income household can purchase by spending 28% of their income on mortgage payments and related costs.

The sharp decline in homes affordable to the middle class in Texas appears to be due to a surge in residents moving to Texas from other states. Since 2000 through the end of last year, more than 9 million Americans have relocated to Texas.

As a result, home prices in Texas have soared. According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Texas home prices surged by 20% year-over-year at the beginning of last year.

Meanwhile, Texas real estate industry officials cited not only the increased housing demand driving up prices but also the recent rise in mortgage interest rates due to high interest rates as factors preventing the middle class from purchasing homes.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.