The number of US cities where first-time homebuyers are faced with at least a $1 million price tag on the average entry-level home has nearly tripled in the past five years, according to new research.

A Thursday report from Zillow indicates that a typical starter home is now worth $1 million or more in 237 cities, up from 84 cities in 2019, underscoring America’s ongoing home affordability crisis.

“Affordability has been strained across the board,” Orphe Divounguy, a senior economist at Zillow, said. “We see the largest number of million-dollar starter homes in expensive coastal markets. We see them in markets with very low homeownership rates and we see them in markets with more building regulations.”

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Corporations are buying up these houses faster than individuals and are pricing everyone out of the market. Then they offer them as rentals.

    • doodledup@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Someone paying the rents? Seems like it’s priced well then. This is how the free market works.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                Again- this has been going on for years. So when is it going to change? Tomorrow? Next year? Next decade? Next century?

                Because people can’t afford houses today.

                Telling me that the “free market” will solve it goes against what has actually been happening.

                Essentially, you’re doing a “what are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?” and then insulting me when I pick my eyes over you.

      • Soulg@sh.itjust.works
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        3 months ago

        It is how the free market works yes, the problem is that the free market itself is fundamentally broken

        • doodledup@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          No it’s not broken just because things are expensive or unaffordable for some. You don’t have to like the system but that doesn’t mean it’s broken.