Rising interest rates will exacerbate housing affordability problems for the middle class
In thinking about issues like the affordability of housing as a major challenge for middle class families and those even farther down on the income scale I did some quick and dirty research and found these telling numbers, from an organization called 24/7 Wall Street. In 2016, for example, I looked at the median listing price of houses in the states with the highest listing prices--Hawaii, California, Massachusetts and Colorado--and the four states with the lowest listing prices--West Virginia, Ohio, Oklahoma and Michigan. The average of the top four was $385,000 and just the top two, $404,000. The bottom four averaged $130,000 and the two lowest averaged $126,300. Taking just the top two versus bottom two, median listing prices were 3.2 times higher in Hawaii and California than in West Virginia and Ohio combined. Comparing the groups of four, the Hawaii group was 3.0 times higher than the West Virginia group. Until we also look at incomes, however, we can't say one group ve