Home ownership will remain out of reach for millions of Americans, despite slumping house prices

[one...two...tree 2,762]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Home ownership will remain out of reach for millions of Americans, despite slumping house prices, unless low-income wages grow faster, according to a national housing study released Monday.

A record 37.3 million households, or one in three, were paying a "moderate cost burden" of 30 percent of their income toward housing in 2005, according to The State of the Nation's Housing 2007. The study said the number of households with that cost burden had risen roughly 20 percent since 2001, when interest rate cuts helped spark a U.S. house price boom.

Improving housing affordability would require an increase in low-income family wages, looser home building regulations and more spending from the federal government, the report said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070611/us_nm/...sing_outlook_dc

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

My solution......

our new house in Thailand

[one...two...tree 2,762]

My solution......

our new house in Thailand

Nice house! That must be one helluva commute!

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Retirement home... someday

[MissStacey 1]

Beautiful home Lucky!!

Edited June 11, 2007 by Stacey33

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

I'm working here in California and the home prices are nuts (right Steven?). How can middle class people buy a home? I can't do the math.

[Jamie76 0]

My solution......

our new house in Thailand

Nice home there Lucky. We plan on doing the same in the future (distant future). Won't be in BKK though...somewhere in Isaan.

[MissStacey 1]

It always made me so sad- As a single woman who had worked very hard at my Proffession for 16 years- there was still no way I could afford a home on my own. I may have been able to scrape by with the Mortgage and car payments and maybe a few boxes of Kraft Dinner every week.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Nice home there Lucky. We plan on doing the same in the future (distant future). Won't be in BKK though...somewhere in Isaan.

that's in Ubon Ratchathani. close to the city. we have a farm up in the sticks too.

[dalegg 143]

I'm working here in California and the home prices are nuts (right Steven?). How can middle class people buy a home? I can't do the math.

There is a simple three step plan to home ownership in California

1) Build time machine

2) Use time machine to go back to 2002

3) Buy house in 2002

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I'm working here in California and the home prices are nuts (right Steven?). How can middle class people buy a home? I can't do the math.

Yep. According to what I recently heard on public radio - a single person living in LA needs an income of at least $100g's/year to afford the median price of a house.

A lot of people out here will buy homes further inland where the more affordable houses exist. The result is more traffic congestion as more and more people are commuting long distances.

[homesick_american 1]

I'm working here in California and the home prices are nuts (right Steven?). How can middle class people buy a home? I can't do the math.

There is a simple three step plan to home ownership in California

1) Build time machine

2) Use time machine to go back to 2002

3) Buy house in 2002

I don't see how anyone lives in California; those house prices are retarded. God bless Texas. :thumbs:

[Ban Hammer 13,337]

I'm working here in California and the home prices are nuts (right Steven?). How can middle class people buy a home? I can't do the math.

There is a simple three step plan to home ownership in California

1) Build time machine

2) Use time machine to go back to 2002

3) Buy house in 2002

true!

[homesick_american 1]

I'm working here in California and the home prices are nuts (right Steven?). How can middle class people buy a home? I can't do the math.

There is a simple three step plan to home ownership in California

1) Build time machine

2) Use time machine to go back to 2002

3) Buy house in 2002

true!

Have you ever watched the US version of Property Ladder (based on a UK show)? Seems like they're almost always in California. Gawd, those prices are ridiculous...almost a million dollars for some of the most tired 3 and 4-bed houses I've ever seen. Who on earth can afford those prices???? It's crazy. It's like I keep saying...you'd have to be insane to move to California. Since I'm in IT I'm always getting e-mail from headhunters in northern California trying to entice me out there....no, no, no, and hell no. If I wanted to pay a zillion dollars per square foot, I can think of places I'd rather live than California.

[BelwinMills 0]

It always made me so sad- As a single woman who had worked very hard at my Proffession for 16 years- there was still no way I could afford a home on my own. I may have been able to scrape by with the Mortgage and car payments and maybe a few boxes of Kraft Dinner every week.

The houses far Chicago burbs are afforadable. My home town has doubled in size since I graduated High school 10 years. There weren't even town house here and back in the day all we had to shop at was a Walmart and JCpennys. Now we have everything its great!! I bought my first house at 25. I read Dave Ramsey's book and now try the hardest to pay for everything in cash. I don't believe in car payments anymore and we stopped eating out. All our furniture is second hand and very nice. I have one full time job and one part time job and life its great. I also invested in a Schwab account. People can't settle for a minimum wage jobs. This is America and you can make great money every where. My husband just got here and I have saved cash for his 1st year to attend the local community college. California is to expensive and nuts.

I love your retirement home!!!