Stealers Wheel’s 1973 hit “Stuck in the Middle with You” could well become the theme song for today’s middle-income, first-time home buyers who don’t qualify for affordable housing programs yet cannot afford market-rate homes.
The household income required to purchase a starter home, currently priced under $350,000 in the United States, has surged more than 80 percent to $78,000 from $43,000 in 2019, according to a July 20 report from Realtor.com.
By contrast, the median household income was $83,730 in 2024, representing an increase of under 22 percent from $68,703 in 2019, according to the latest Census Bureau estimates.
This gap in growth between home prices and household incomes has made it increasingly difficult for even middle-income households to own a home, real estate professionals, economists, and recent research say.
Caught In The Middle
Vlora Sejdi, an associate broker with HomeSmart in White Plains, New York, recently told The Epoch Times about the challenges her young clients face in buying a home.
She is currently working with a childless couple under 40 who are living with parents while saving for a down payment on a home in Westchester County, an affluent suburb north of New York City, which had a median home price of $867,398 in May, according to Redfin.
“Home prices here just keep going up and up,” she said. “It’s a seller’s market and people who can afford to buy are willing to go above and beyond. We’re still seeing bidding wars.”
“They’re very unhappy with the current situation, and I think there’s also a shock factor for what their monthly payments will be with mortgage, taxes, and insurance,” she said.
Sejdi said another of her clients, a woman in her 20s, also from Westchester County, is currently renting while searching for a co-op, a type of housing in which residents purchase shares in a cooperative corporation that owns the building, rather than own individual units, according to Apartments.com.
Co-ops tend to be much less expensive than condos or single-family homes. According to OneKey MLS, in Westchester County, the median sales price for co-ops was $223,750 in May, compared with $576,500 and $1,200,000 for condos and single-family homes, respectively.
However, these properties are controlled by a co-op board of directors that can set stringent financial requirements for anyone seeking to purchase an apartment.
“My client actually had one accepted offer, but the board would not approve her, despite the fact that she now pays significantly more in monthly rent than she would for monthly maintenance at the co-op,” Sejdi said.
Sejdi will continue to search for other possibilities but admits the journey has been challenging for both of them.
“There’s definitely a lack of attainable housing for the middle class in Westchester,” she said. “These are people who make too much money to qualify for affordable housing, but don’t have enough to afford market-rate homes.”
Sejdi’s clients requested anonymity.
Hellbound and Down 