Why availability is the new affordability when it comes to home buying
Jon Gorey - Globe Correspondent , Realtors and housing experts are warning of a difficult spring for first-time home buyers. Prices had climbed for seven straight years before skyrocketing during the pandemic. With buyer demand far outpacing the number of homes for sale, median home prices were up 12.9 percent in December compared with the year before, marking the 106th consecutive month of year-over-year price gains, according to the National Association of Realtors. And incomes haven’t kept pace with those fast-rising home prices. Even before the pandemic, “prices were about 4.3 times higher than the median household income,’’ said Alex Hermann, senior research analyst at Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies . That basic measure of housing affordability, already at its worst level since 2006, almost certainly rose again in 2020. “Nationally, price-to-income ratios have risen for eight straight years,’’ he said. Realtors are watching prices slip out of reach for their firs