July 2020 was the moment when the housing market went crazy

An in-depth report on BusinessInsider.com concluded that July of 2020 was the moment when the housing market went crazy, resulting in a housing market of haves and have-nots.People who were able to buy homes before July 2020 got in before prices and mortgage rates skyrocketed and those who didn't either bought a home that was more than they intended to spend and may have gotten a mortgage at a rate double of what was available until September 2022. Rental costs have soared during this period, so those unlucky potential buyers who were priced out of the market were less able to save, since their rent prices kept rising too.Another result of the high prices and high lending rates is that the availability of homes for sale is rock bottom, as the chart below shows: But the lucky ones who do own homes now have record high amounts of equity, due to those rising prices. As of March 2023, the typical homeowner with a mortgage had about $185,102 in "tappable equity" (the amount they could borrow while still keeping a 20% investment in the home). That figure is 54% higher than March 2023.Pity the renters who are not seeing wealth gains and who, for the first time in 25 years, now have to pay more than 30% of their income to rent an average apartment. The HUD definition of affordable is 30% of your income for all housing costs (including utilities), so paying more than 30% just for rent shows how unaffordable life is for renters. And if you did manage to buy a home after July 2020, you got much less home for your buck. A $300,000 house went from occupying 1,800 SF before that dreadful date to about 1,300 SF today.For people who missed out on the wealth building that happened during the pandemic, the negative effects are expected to endure. Millennials (aged 27 - 42) are in the peak years of earning, starting a family, and contributing to society. Yet they are living longer with their parents (or with roommates), which means they become parents later. Combined with having less wealth and less ability to buy homes, the non-property owning Millennials are falling behind in all areas of economic gains.