A UHERO Blog post We’ve heard lots about the unaffordability of housing. How widespread is it and how extreme? To assess this, we need to do more than some of the simple illustrations out there, like those that compare the ratio of home price to income over time. Affordability also depends on other factors, including the size of down payments, prevailing interest rates, property taxes, and home insurance rates. I compare the market median home price to a measure of the afford

There is a constant refrain out there that American consumers are running up big credit card tabs to fuel an unsustainable spending spree. The only problem is it's dead wrong. The balance of revolving credit not secured by real estate—primarily credit cards—has declined over the past several years when measured against disposable personal income. The credit to income ratio is now 5.7, compared with 6.1 in mid-2024. Non-revolving credit for things like autos, recreational vehi

Consumer spending has held up surprisingly well even as labor markets have cooled and sentiment has plumbed record lows. After slowing earlier this year it has once again firmed in recent months. Why? At least part of the story is the rise in household wealth over the past few years.

A little less than a year ago, I published a post explaining why the US economy was clearly NOT in a recession , despite contrary claims...

We won't know for some time the tariff effects on inflation. The consumer price index rose a modest 0.2% in February, a sharp step down...