American renters are fearful that their home-owning aspirations are increasingly getting out of reach, according to a recent survey by the real-estate platform Redfin, amid an environment of high home prices and elevated mortgage rates.Almost 40 percent of the renters polled told surveyors they did not believe they would own a home of their own, up from 27 percent in a similar survey Redfin conducted in May and June.
High mortgage rates now mean that first-time buyers must earn about $76,000 to afford what the industry describes as a starter home, which is an 8 percent increase from a year ago and almost 100 percent higher than it was before the pandemic, Redfin said. It added that home prices have soared more than 40 percent since 2019, as buyers took advantage of low borrowing costs during the pandemic to acquire houses, increasing demand, escalating competition and pushing up prices.