2023 was the most unaffordable year for homebuyers in over a decade

TheStreet's J.D. Durkin brings the latest business headlines from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as markets close for trading Thursday, December 7th.

Full Video Transcript Below:

J.D. DURKIN: I’m J.D. Durkin reporting from the New York Stock Exchange. Markets are digesting a week of mixed jobs data – job openings fell to their lowest level, the private sector added fewer jobs than expected, and weekly jobless claims came in below expectations, indicating that layoffs have not increased. This all comes ahead of Friday’s November jobs report which will give Wall Street a much clearer picture ahead of the Fed’s December meeting.

Turning to real estate - if you tried buying a home this past year, you know exactly how tough the market was. And now a new report by Redfin confirms, 2023 was the least affordable year for home-buying since 2012.

If you made the median income in the U.S., which is just under $79,000, you would have had to spend 40% of your income on monthly housing costs, that’s if you bought a median-priced home, which was about $400,000.

According to one Redfin economist, “A perfect storm of inflation, high prices, soaring mortgage rates and low housing supply caused 2023 to go down as the least affordable year for housing in recent history.”

Austin, Texas was the only city that became more affordable in 2023. But Redfin predicts a more friendly environment for home-buyers in 2024, with mortgage rates falling to 6.6% and housing prices falling by 1%.

That’ll do it for your daily briefing. From the New York Stock Exchange, I’m J.D. Durkin with TheStreet.