Originally Posted by kane

Here is something that should trouble us all. If the nationwide average income according to that chart is 39K that means a person making that would bring home around $2400 per month after taxes (based on a 25% tax rate which includes federal, state and social security taxes). The average home cost 183K. So if the average person managed to put down 20% on the average home and had a mortgage of 5.5% and a property tax rate of 1.5% their monthly payment is about $1050 or about 44% of their income.

When you do the same math for 1970 you see that the average home cost about 23K the average annual income was 9.3K. So using the same numbers as above the average person buying the average home would only spend about 28% of their monthly income on their homes.

I have said all along that prices and credit have been the downfall of the middle class and I think this kind of shows what I have meant. It is quickly getting to the point where the average wage earner in this country can no longer afford the average house. Of course they still buy the average house, then they just use credit to pay for everything else and dig themselves into deep deep debt.