Average Americans are finding homes and cars increasingly unaffordable as inflation from high government spending raises prices and degrades purchasing power.
Half of consumers are being priced out of the car market as the cost of a monthly car loan payment is far exceeding what an average American can afford, while the home affordability index has fallen from a 169.9 point average in 2020 to 87.8 points as of July, according to the National Association of Realtors. One key driver of the rising expenses is inflation, which peaked at 9.1% in June 2022 and is linked to high government spending under the Biden administration, according to experts who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“Both housing and automobiles have become increasingly less affordable to American households as a direct result of the Fed having to raise interest rates to curb inflation,” Desmond Lachman, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told the DCNF. “Most people finance their home and auto purchases by taking out loans and those loans have become much more expensive.”