A new report is putting some perspective on just how much home prices have risen over the past several decades. The Houston Chronicle looked at Census data for median home values and median incomes in Harris County in 1980 and 2022, and found the number of years of income it would take to buy a home rose from 2.7 years to 3.8 years in that span. During that span, the median home value rose by 377%, from about $55,000 to $264,000.
Of course, the median home price is different from the average home price, which is much higher in the Houston area, and still going up. Florida-based real estate investor Grant Cardone recently told Fox News this is the new reality of the housing market. "This is the worst time to buy a home in my lifetime," he says. "Here (in Florida) it costs about $400,000 for the average home, and it will cost about $51,000 more with insurance, interest, taxes, property taxes, maintenance...and that's without a down payment."
And that's only in Texas and Florida, which are considered among the cheaper states for housing. "In New York or California, you're double that amount," says Cardone.
As for his 'worst time to buy a home' comment, Cardone says it's based on the combination of high prices and high interest rates. "We have interest rates almost at 8 percent now," he continues. "And people say yeah, but I remember when they were 18 percent...the difference is that home was $24,000 then, and today it's $400,000, $500,000, or $600,000, with insurance premiums blowing out the roof."