Home sales saw their biggest month-on-month decline since November 2022 in March, dropping by 4.3 percent compared to February. Meanwhile, the average 30-year fixed mortgage surged to 7.1 percent — its highest since the end of last year.
Average monthly new mortgage payments are 38 percent higher than average apartment rent, with this double-digit disparity persisting for a two-year period. This is discouraging Americans from buying their own homes, with sales down 3.7 percent year-on-year.
“It’s never been this high for this long,” commented the Head of Multifamily Research at the CBRE Group, who produced the disparity figures, Matt Vance. “It doesn’t seem likely that it will come down any significant amount in the next several years,” he warned.
Consumers are also suffering from higher-than-expected inflation. Energy price rises have been especially punishing, increasing by 29.4 percent since Joe Biden assumed office in 2021. The price of gasoline has risen by over 52.1 percent over the same period and was even higher in 2022.
Donald Trump has made Biden’s faltering economy one of his key pitches to voters ahead of the presidential election in November, regularly asking, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”
Voters largely believe they are not, with 75 percent saying the cost of living is increasing in a recent poll. Of voters who think the cost of living is rising, 56 percent support Trump, while only 32 percent support Biden.
Trump also enjoys strong support among those working hardest through the challenging economy, with 80 percent of voters working over 60 hours and 59 percent working 50-59 hours backing the former president.
Biden only enjoys majority support among voters working 20-29 hours or less.
