Homeownership is becoming harder for US renters

Home prices are surging in the US and consumers are paying more for finished goods and services – which spells rising inequality in the world’s largest economy.

Median home prices in the United States are surging, squeezing out for first-time buyers, while low-income Americans are losing a bigger slice of their household budgets to rising prices. That’s what the latest batch of data is revealing about widening inequality in the world’s largest economy. The median sale price of a single-family home in the three months ending June reached a record high of $357,000, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said on Thursday. That is nearly 23 percent higher than the same period a year ago. The housing market continues to be a hotbed of economic activity this year, as aspiring buyers looking to take advantage of historically low mortgage rates find themselves in a tight market where few homes on offer leave sellers calling the shots.