By Nate Trela | The Coloradoan
A new study on homeownership shows just how unaffordable buying a home is across the country, including two Colorado metro areas where homebuying is out of reach for most of their residents even if mortgage rates were set to 0%.
The report using data .from Ziffy.ai, an AI-powered real estate investment platform, included the Boulder and Grand Junction areas among dozens of examples of markets where more than half of the homes are unaffordable for most households, even if mortgages did not require paying interest.
The analysis defines affordability as when the total monthly housing costs — principal, interest, taxes and insurance — are no more than 30% of the median household income in a market. It based the mortgage calculations on a standard 20% down payment on a median-priced home and Freddie Mac’s 6.49% average mortgage rate for the week ending July 9.
The report found that even at 0% interest, 42 markets would still see more than half of their homes unaffordable for more than half of their households. In addition, in 110 metros, including the Denver, Fort Collins/Loveland, Colorado Springs and Pueblo areas, rates would need to fall below 3% to be affordable. That is a mark only seen regularly in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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