Housing Market Fizzles Amid Rising Prices, Lower-Paying Jobs

From Bloomberg.com:

[The housing market has] been sideswiped by rising home prices and an economy that isn’t producing higher paying jobs.

The share of Americans who said they planned to buy a home in the next six months plunged to 4.9 percent last month from 7.4 percent at the end of 2013, the highest in records going back to 1964, according to the Conference Board.

“The big housing rally wiped itself out because prices increased too quickly for buyers to keep up,” said Richard Hastings, a consumer strategist ... who predicted the slowdown eight months ago.

“The pool of eligible new buyers is collapsing” because of stagnant incomes and lack of credit, he said...

In April, the median income was $52,959.

When adjusted for inflation, that’s almost 6 percent lower than in June 2009, which marked the beginning of the economic recovery, said Gordon Green ...who formerly directed the Census Bureau office that compiles wage statistics.

“Even though we’re technically in a recovery, household income is lower now than it was in the recession,” Green said.

“It makes it a lot harder to buy a house.” 
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Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-20/housing-falters-as-forecasters-see-u-s-sales-dropping.html