On the front page of today’s New York Times is a report that I hope against hope that Paul Krugman reads the next time he’s tempted to write that ordinary Americans are no better off economically than we were a generation or so ago.
Here are the opening paragraphs of the NYT report:
Despite a widespread sense that real estate has never been more
expensive, families in the vast majority of the country can still buy a
house for a smaller share of their income than they could have a
generation ago.
A sharp fall in mortgage rates since the early 1980’s, a decline in
mortgage fees and a rise in incomes have more than made up for rising
house prices in almost every place outside of New York, Washington,
Miami and along the coast in California. These often-overlooked changes
are a major reason that most economists do not expect a broad drop in
prices in 2006, even though many once-booming markets on the coasts
have started weakening.
The long-term decline in housing costs also helps explain why the
homeownership rate remains near a record of almost 69 percent, up from
65 percent a decade ago.
(Hat tip to Karol.)
