In the Media

A new report from one of the nation’s premiere housing research groups confirms what many of us already know: residential real estate is pulling further away from ordinary Americans, becoming more expensive, less attainable, and increasingly stymying efforts to make a market that works for everyone. The State of the Nation’s Housing 2025, from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, lays out the numbers in stark detail.

The housing affordability crisis that has been keeping the dream of homeownership out of reach for millions of Americans over the past few years is unlikely to ease "anytime soon," according to a new report by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. The State of the Nation's Housing 2025 found that sky-high home prices—which are still rising at the national level—historically elevated mortgage rates, and rising home insurance premiums and property taxes are still keeping Americans on the sidelines of the market, despite growing inventory.

“Lower-income householders are often cash strapped,” said Sophia Wedeen, a senior research analyst with the Joint Center. “The fact that they’re investing so much less in dollars but spending more of their incomes is certainly reinforcing inequities in housing conditions and finances.” The calculations also considered race and ethnicity, household composition and other traits, but of the homeowner characteristics evaluated, Ms. Wedeen noted, income is a main driver of spending.

Economists consider the ratio of home prices to incomes to be a reliable indicator of the state of a housing market. Typically, a house-price-to-income ratio of three — a median household income of $100,000 and median home price of $300,000, for instance — is seen as healthy. In Greater Boston in 2023, that ratio was 6.3, according to Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, more than double that healthy rate.

In the U.S., the number of households officially "burdened by rent" has hit another record high. As of 2023, more than 22 million renting households are spending more than 30% of their incomes on rent and utilities, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

U.S. home prices have far outpaced wages, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. The current median home price in the U.S. is more than $403,000, NAR data shows, while the Social Security Administration reports the national average wage index is about $66,600.

Over the past three decades, the share of homeowners ages 65 to 79 with a mortgage rose from 24% to 41%, while median mortgage debt surged by 400%, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. Among homeowners 80 years and older, the numbers are even more dramatic. The share with mortgages jumped from 3% to 31%, and median mortgage debt increased by 750%. “For a lot of people, I think this isn’t a choice. It isn’t a financial strategy. It’s more of a reality,” said Jennifer Molinsky, director of the Housing an Aging Society Program at Harvard’s Joint Center.

Chris Herbert is managing director for the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, a think tank whose signature annual publication, the State of the Nation’s Housing, documents the challenges in the market. “When the top line numbers say we need to have more units, it gets a lot of attention, as it should,” Herbert said. “But I think the attention needs to be focused on the fact that it's not just any old units, but smaller ones that we need,”

Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies’ most recent quarterly outlook of home improvement projects that spending on home renovations will continue to increase this year, despite economic uncertainty. Rising home prices and signs of a solid economy have supported the outlook for higher spending on home improvement, but that could change if the housing market and economic outlook worsen, said Carlos Martín, director of the JCHS Remodeling Futures Program.

Back in April, Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies put out its latest report on the outlook for the remodeling market. And it looked decent — slow but steady growth through the next year — with spending around half a trillion dollars. But it didn’t take into account the effects of the president’s so-called “Liberation Day.” Or of a downturn in existing home sales, said the center’s Carlos Martín. Which suggests “that there may be a bit of retrenchment in some of our remodeling home improvement activity,” said Martín.