At the end of 2017, mortgage payments on the
typical US home required 15.7 % of the median
income, according to Zillow's Q4 2017 affordability
analysis.
From the vantage point of renters, price appreciation puts homeownership further out of reach in two ways: It increases the amount they need to borrow, increasing the prospective monthly mortgage payment; and it increases the amount of the down payment needed to obtain a mortgage.2 The
typical renter does not have large financial assets to tap in order to come up with a down payment.3 And an
analysis of Federal Reserve data shows that the
typical amount of financial assets owned has decreased over the past decade for younger and lower - and middle -
income renters.