US housing market needs 320,000 homes for middle class: Report

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) - The US housing market needs around 320,000 affordable homes for the middle class, according to a joint report released Thursday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and real estate listings website Realtor.com.

Those homes, which are valued up to $256,000, are in the affordable price range for middle-income buyers -- households that are earning up to $75,000 per year.

While middle-income buyers could afford to buy half of all available homes five years ago, they can now afford to buy only 23% of home listings in the current market, according to the report.

"Middle-income buyers face the largest shortage of homes among all income groups, making it even harder for them to build wealth through homeownership," said Nadia Evangelou, NAR senior economist and director of real estate research.

"We must boost the number of homes at the price range that most people can afford to buy," she added.

Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale said high costs and scarcity of homes create challenges for many buyers, and keep some of them in the rental market or delaying their purchase until market conditions improve.

"Those who are able to overcome affordability constraints may be increasingly drawn to newly constructed homes or to the suburbs and beyond, both of which may offer buyers more realistic opportunities for homeownership in the near term," she added.

In the US' 100 biggest metropolitan areas, El Paso, Texas, Boise, Idaho, and Spokane, Washington have the fewest affordable homes available for the middle class, according to the report.

Three cities in the state of Ohio, on the other hand, have the most affordable homes available for that income group, which are Youngstown, Akron and Toledo.