“It’s the first thing I read every day.” — Brigadier General (retired) Russ Howard, founding director of The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.
1. The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that the United States reached its lowest fertility rate in history in 2024: Every American woman is now estimated to have 1.6 children during their lifetime, much lower than the 2.1 rate needed to keep population at its current level without immigration. An analysis of birth rates nationally showed two forces are pushing Americans away from having children: a broad cultural shift away from traditional families and a lack of high-quality, affordable child care and housing. (Source: washingtonpost.com)
2. Bloomberg.com:
It’s no surprise that home purchasing costs have soared, with mortgage rates hovering near two-decade highs and property prices breaking records. What’s shocking is how quickly prices have ballooned out of reach. The annual income needed to afford monthly payments on a median-priced home in the US was $126,670 in 2024—a 60% jump from $79,330 in 2021, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. Meanwhile the US median household income was $80,610 in 2023, the most recent year for which data is available, up just 1.3% from three years earlier. “There’s no rush to be a homeowner given that differential,” says Laurie Goodman, founder of the Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute.
For decades part of the logic for buying a house was that, after the down payment, mortgage payments were generally cheaper than renting. Ultrapricey cities such as New York and San Francisco were the exception. Well, no more: As of June, renting was on average $908 a month cheaper than buying a starter home, and the cost of owning was higher in 49 of the 50 largest US metro areas, according to Realtor.com. Pittsburgh is the last major city where owning is cheaper than renting. In 2021, when mortgage rates were at rock bottom, buying was still as cheap or cheaper than renting in 21 markets, including Atlanta, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Tampa, Florida. (Source: bloomberg.com. More on this from The Wall Street Journal here. )
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