A for sale sign stands outside a home on Wednesday, April 3, 2024, in Denver. First-time homebuyers are continuing to have trouble affording a home as the housing market grows more expensive with high interest rates and even higher asking prices that are driving one of the most unaffordable markets in U.S. history.
Only four states have housing markets that are affordable for the median earner: West Virginia, Ohio, Iowa and Indiana. Realtors and housing analysts have identified a “lock-in effect,” with so many Americans either buying or refinancing a home during the pandemic and getting locked into interest rates at 4% or lower and being unwilling to give them up. The lock-in effect has been hurting the level of existing inventory on the market, exacerbating price pressures that are also being felt from a sufficient number of new homes being built.