Portugal, Canada, and the United States were the countries with the highest house price to income ratio in 2024. In all three countries, the index exceeded 130 index points, while the average for all OECD countries stood at 116.2 index points. The index measures the development of housing affordability and is calculated by dividing nominal house price by nominal disposable income per head, with 2015 set as a base year when the index amounted to 100. An index value of 120, for example, would mean that house price growth has outpaced income growth by 20 percent since 2015. How have house prices worldwide changed since the COVID-19 pandemic? House prices started to rise gradually after the global financial crisis (2007–2008), but this trend accelerated with the pandemic. The countries with advanced economies, which usually have mature housing markets, experienced stronger growth than countries with emerging economies. Real house price growth (accounting for inflation) peaked in 2022 and has since lost some of the gain. Although, many countries experienced a decline in house prices, the global house price index shows that property prices in 2023 were still substantially higher than before COVID-19. Renting vs. buying In the past, house prices have grown faster than rents. However, the home affordability has been declining notably, with a direct impact on rental prices. As people struggle to buy a property of their own, they often turn to rental accommodation. This has resulted in a growing demand for rental apartments and soaring rental prices.

The house price to income ratio in the United States has reached concerning levels, with the index hitting ***** in the fourth quarter of 2024. This indicates that house prices have outpaced income growth by over ** percent since 2015, highlighting a growing affordability crisis in the housing market. The widening gap between home prices and wages is putting homeownership out of reach for many Americans, particularly as real wages have remained stagnant. Rising home prices and stagnant wages While average annual real wages in the United States have increased slightly since 2014, home prices have soared. The median sales price of existing single-family homes reached a record-high in 2024, representing a substantial increase over the past five years. This disparity between wage growth and home price appreciation has led to a significant decrease in housing affordability across the country. Affordability challenges in the U.S. housing market The U.S. Housing Affordability Index, which measures whether a family earning the median income can afford a median-priced home, plummeted in 2024, marking the second-worst year for homebuyers since records began. This decline in affordability is reflected in homebuyer sentiment, with homebuyer sentiment plummeting.

Affordability ratios calculated by dividing house prices for newly-built dwellings, by gross annual residence-based earnings. Based on the median and lower quartiles of both house prices and earnings in England and Wales.

Affordability ratios calculated by dividing house prices for existing dwellings, by gross annual workplace-based earnings. Based on the median and lower quartiles of both house prices and earnings in England and Wales.

The house price to income index in Europe declined in almost all European countries in 2023, indicating that income grew faster than house prices. Portugal, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands led the house price to income index ranking in 2023, with values exceeding *** index points. Romania, Bulgaria, and Finland were on the other side of the spectrum, with less than 100 index points. The house price to income ratio is an indicator for the development of housing affordability across OECD countries and is calculated as the nominal house prices divided by nominal disposable income per head, with 2015 chosen as a base year. A ratio higher than 100 means that the nominal house price growth since 2015 has outpaced the nominal disposable income growth, and housing is therefore comparatively less affordable. In 2023, the OECD average stood at ***** index points.

Japan JP: Standardised Price-Income Ratio: sa data was reported at 87.536 Ratio in 2024. This records a decrease from the previous number of 89.289 Ratio for 2023. Japan JP: Standardised Price-Income Ratio: sa data is updated yearly, averaging 113.262 Ratio from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2024, with 65 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 163.202 Ratio in 1973 and a record low of 73.471 Ratio in 2009. Japan JP: Standardised Price-Income Ratio: sa data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Japan – Table JP.OECD.AHPI: House Price Index: Seasonally Adjusted: OECD Member: Annual. Nominal house prices divided by nominal disposable income per head. Net household disposable income is used. The population data come from the OECD national accounts database. The long-term average is calculated over the whole period available when the indicator begins after 1980 or after 1980 if the indicator is longer. This value is used as a reference value. The ratio is calculated by dividing the indicator source on this long-term average, and indexed to a reference value equal to 100.

The average sales price of new homes in the United States experienced a slight decrease in 2024, dropping to 512,2000 U.S. dollars from the peak of 521,500 U.S. dollars in 2022. This decline came after years of substantial price increases, with the average price surpassing 400,000 U.S. dollars for the first time in 2021. The recent cooling in the housing market reflects broader economic trends and changing consumer sentiment towards homeownership. Factors influencing home prices and affordability The rapid rise in home prices over the past few years has been driven by several factors, including historically low mortgage rates and increased demand during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the market has since slowed down, with the number of home sales declining by over two million between 2021 and 2023. This decline can be attributed to rising mortgage rates and decreased affordability. The Housing Affordability Index hit a record low of 98.1 in 2023, indicating that the median-income family could no longer afford a median-priced home. Future outlook for the housing market Despite the recent cooling, experts forecast a potential recovery in the coming years. The Freddie Mac House Price Index showed a growth of 6.5 percent in 2023, which is still above the long-term average of 4.4 percent since 1990. However, homebuyer sentiment remains low across all age groups, with people aged 45 to 64 expressing the most pessimistic outlook. The median sales price of existing homes is expected to increase slightly until 2025, suggesting that affordability challenges may persist in the near future.

This dataset contains the ratio of median house price to median earnings by district from 1997 to 2012.

This data set uses the median house price data from Land Registry on residential house price transactions at full market value, this means it excludes all: commercial transactions, transfer, conveyances, assignments or lease at a premium with nominal rent which are: Right to Buy sales at a discount, subject to a lease, subject to an existing mortgage, by way of a gift or exchange or under a court order or Compulsory Purchase Order. This is compared to the median income data of full time workers from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) produced by the ONS.

This data was derived from Table 577, available for download as an Excel spreadsheet.

The Housing Affordability Index, calculated by the Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies, measures the ability of a middle-income family to carry the mortgage payments on a median-price home. When the index is 100 there is a balance between the family’s ability to pay and the cost. Higher indexes indicate housing is more affordable.

For example, an index of 126 means that a median-income family has 26 percent more income than the bare minimum required to qualify for a mortgage on a median-price home. An index of 80 means that a median-income family has less income than the minimum required.

Analysis of ‘California Housing Prices Data (5 new features!)’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://www.kaggle.com/fedesoriano/california-housing-prices-data-extra-features on 28 January 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

Similar Datasets:

Boston House Prices: LINK

Context

This is the dataset is a modified version of the California Housing Data used in the paper Pace, R. Kelley, and Ronald Barry. "Sparse spatial autoregressions." Statistics & Probability Letters 33.3 (1997): 291-297.. It serves as an excellent introduction to implementing machine learning algorithms because it requires rudimentary data cleaning, has an easily understandable list of variables and sits at an optimal size between being too toyish and too cumbersome.

The data contains information from the 1990 California census. So although it may not help you with predicting current housing prices like the Zillow Zestimate dataset, it does provide an accessible introductory dataset for teaching people about the basics of machine learning.

Modifications with respect to the original data

This dataset includes 5 extra features defined by me: "Distance to coast", "Distance to Los Angeles", "Distance to San Diego", "Distance to San Jose", and "Distance to San Francisco". These extra features try to account for the distance to the nearest coast and the distance to the centre of the largest cities in California.

The distances were calculated using the Haversine formula with the Longitude and Latitude:

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where:

• phi_1 and phi_2 are the Latitudes of point 1 and point 2, respectively
• lambda_1 and lambda_2 are the Longitudes of point 1 and point 2, respectively
• r is the radius of the Earth (6371km)

Content

The data pertains to the houses found in a given California district and some summary stats about them based on the 1990 census data. The columns are as follows, their names are pretty self-explanatory:

1) Median House Value: Median house value for households within a block (measured in US Dollars) [$] 2) Median Income: Median income for households within a block of houses (measured in tens of thousands of US Dollars) [10k$] 3) Median Age: Median age of a house within a block; a lower number is a newer building [years] 4) Total Rooms: Total number of rooms within a block 5) Total Bedrooms: Total number of bedrooms within a block 6) Population: Total number of people residing within a block 7) Households: Total number of households, a group of people residing within a home unit, for a block 8) Latitude: A measure of how far north a house is; a higher value is farther north [°] 9) Longitude: A measure of how far west a house is; a higher value is farther west [°] 10) Distance to coast: Distance to the nearest coast point [m] 11) Distance to Los Angeles: Distance to the centre of Los Angeles [m] 12) Distance to San Diego: Distance to the centre of San Diego [m] 13) Distance to San Jose: Distance to the centre of San Jose [m] 14) Distance to San Francisco: Distance to the centre of San Francisco [m]

Source

This data was entirely modified and cleaned by me. The original data (without the distance features) was initially featured in the following paper: Pace, R. Kelley, and Ronald Barry. "Sparse spatial autoregressions." Statistics & Probability Letters 33.3 (1997): 291-297.

The original dataset can be found under the following link: https://www.dcc.fc.up.pt/~ltorgo/Regression/cal_housing.html

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

United States US: Price to Income Ratio: sa data was reported at 130.892 2015=100 in 2024. This records an increase from the previous number of 129.315 2015=100 for 2023. United States US: Price to Income Ratio: sa data is updated yearly, averaging 113.539 2015=100 from Dec 1970 (Median) to 2024, with 55 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 132.929 2015=100 in 1979 and a record low of 90.287 2015=100 in 2012. United States US: Price to Income Ratio: sa data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.OECD.AHPI: House Price Index: Seasonally Adjusted: OECD Member: Annual. Nominal house prices divided by nominal disposable income per head. Net household disposable income is used. The population data come from the OECD national accounts database.

This dataset provides insights into the global housing market, covering various economic factors from 2015 to 2024. It includes details about property prices, rental yields, interest rates, and household income across multiple countries. This dataset is ideal for real estate analysis, financial forecasting, and market trend visualization.

📑 Column Descriptions

The house price ratio in Norway fluctuated between 2012 and 2024. The ratio measures the development of housing affordability and is calculated by dividing nominal house price by nominal disposable income per head, with 2015 set as a base year when the index amounted to 100. Norway's index score in the first quarter of 2024 amounted to 110, which means that house price growth had outpaced income growth by 10 percent since 2015. This was lower than the average house price to income ratio in the Euro area 16.

This table shows the average House Price/Earnings ratio, which is an important indicator of housing affordability. Ratios are calculated by dividing house price by the median earnings of a borough.

The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) is based on a 1 per cent sample of employee jobs. Information on earnings and hours is obtained in confidence from employers. It does not cover the self-employed nor does it cover employees not paid during the reference period. Information is as at April each year. The statistics used are workplace based full-time individual earnings.

Land Registry housing data are for the first half of the year only, so that they comparable to the ASHE data which are as at April.
Prior to 2006 data are not available for Inner and Outer London.

The lowest 25 per cent of prices are below the lower quartile; the highest 75 per cent are above the lower quartile.
The "lower quartile" property price/income is determined by ranking all property prices/incomes in ascending order.
The 'median' property price/income is determined by ranking all property prices/incomes in ascending order. The point at which one half of the values are above and one half are below is the median.

Regional data has not been published by DCLG since 2012. Data for regions has been calculated by the GLA. Data for 2014 has been calculated by the GLA.

Link to DCLG Live Tables

Housing affordability (median house prices to earnings ratio)

In 2022, the annual salary needed to buy a median priced home in the United States was 97,204 U.S. dollars. However, in some of the largest metropolitan areas in the United States where housing prices are up to two or three times higher, homebuyers would have to earn more than 100,000 U.S. dollars to afford a home. In San Jose, which was the most expensive metro in 2022, the annual salary needed for a median home was approximately 373,696 U.S. dollars.

The house price to income ratio in Germany in the first quarter of 2024 declined notably from its peak in 2022. The ratio measures the development of housing affordability and is calculated by dividing nominal house price by nominal disposable income per head, with 2015 set as a base year when the index amounted to 100. Germany's index score in the first quarter of 2024 amounted to 109.7, which means that house price growth had outpaced income growth by about 10 percent since 2015. This was below the average house price to income area in the Euro area 16.

This is the median housing affordability ratio (residence-based) and is calculated by dividing house prices by gross annual earnings, based on the median of both house prices and earnings.

This measure of affordability shows what the people who live in a given area earn in relation to that area's house prices, even if they work elsewhere. This measure does not consider that people may be getting higher earnings from working in other areas.

A higher ratio indicates that on average, it is less affordable for a resident to purchase a house. Conversely, a lower ratio indicates higher affordability in a local authority.

The earnings data are from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings which provides a snapshot of earnings at April in each year. Earnings relate to gross full-time individual earnings on a place of work basis. The house price statistics come from the House Price Statistics for Small Areas, which report the median and lower quartile price paid for residential property and refer to a 12-month period with April in the middle (year ending September).

Data is Powered by LG Inform Plus and automatically checked for new data on the 3rd of each month.

Ratio of median quartile workplace earnings to median quartile house prices. The statistics used are workplace based full-time individual earnings. Source: Land Registry/Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings Publisher: Communities and Local Government (CLG) Geographies: Local Authority District (LAD), County/Unitary Authority, Government Office Region (GOR), National Geographic coverage: England Time coverage: 1997 to 2009 Type of data: Survey