John SkinnerWaves of new residents are outpacing new housing stock in the country’s least affordable rental markets, according to a Zillow analysis of U.S. rental and mortgage affordability.
In Los Angeles, where renters spend an average of 48.2 percent of their monthly income on rent, only 187 new housing units were added for every 1,000 new arrivals between 2012 and 2013. In New York, it was 383 per 1,000 newcomers, and in San Francisco, it was just 193.
The middle class increasingly feels the pinch, according to Christopher Herbert, managing director of Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. “Low-income people have always had trouble finding affordable housing, but now as rents have gone up, that’s true of middle-income people as well,” said Herbert, who cites income declines as a major culprit.
Source: Housing Wire
