Recent research by Bankrate determined that more than 75% of homes in the United States are unaffordable for the average household, due to the enormous gap between housing prices and the income of American families.

Regarding this, Alex Gailey, a data analyst at Bankrate, commented that “only a A small portion of the housing market is affordable for the average household. That's when homeownership starts to feel less like a common achievement for the middle class and more like a luxury.”

In this sense, the Bankrate analysis indicates that homes can only be defined as affordable when their annual cost does not exceed 30% of the owner's income; However, the tight housing market with its lack of inventory has led to a significant shortage in the face of high demand, inevitably driving up housing prices. For Gailey, this market trend is what has left the average American household with far fewer homes than they can afford, “and we haven’t been building at the rate we should be,” he said. But it’s not just the lack of inventory that has been affecting the market in recent years; higher mortgage rates are also putting pressure on and keeping prospective buyers away. Therefore, the difficulties in buying a home make achieving the much-desired “American Dream” seem very distant, since, according to Census data, just last year the annual income needed to buy a typical home was $113,000; currently, it is around $435,000.