86% of renters say they can’t afford a home, most say they’ll never afford one: Survey

According to a new CNN poll, most current renters in the US say they can’t afford to buy a home, with over half of Americans saying they are pessimistic about ever achieving their goal of home ownership.

CNN’s study found that 86% of current renters in the United States can’t afford to buy a home as a hallmark of the American Dream goes further out of reach for thousands of families.

“Buying a house is absolutely something we would love to do,” 39-year-old father Brent Bjornsen told CNN Business. “It seems unattainable.”

“We are saddled with seemingly insurmountable debt,” Bjornsen said. “Home ownership seems impossible … and it hurts for the two children of the Baby Boomers and feels like a disappointment.”

CNN’s Matt Egan said Monday that of the survey respondents who currently cannot afford to buy a home, most are extremely doubtful that they will be able to afford one.

“Fifty-four percent say it is not very likely or unlikely that they will ever be able to [to buy a home]”, said Egan.

“It really speaks to a lot of pessimism here about the American dream, how it feels like it’s politically out of reach,” Egan said. “You can see how that would be a problem for the ruling party and, economically, it’s also a problem because, look, home ownership remains the ticket to wealth generation. So it’s just widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots.”

Some Americans, including Jeremy Andersson, a 40-year-old father of twins, have given up hope of ever owning a home.

“We’ve given up on home ownership,” Andersson told the newspaper. “We felt the societal pressure to buy a house because that’s the American dream, right? Have a family and buy a house.”

“I’m not going to pay $350,000 for a dilapidated house. It seems almost laughable. “We can’t find anything affordable for a family of four,” Andersson said. “I won’t play your game anymore. I’m done.”

“At first I wondered if I was a failure as a father or a husband because I couldn’t make a lawn for my children to play on,” he said. “It took a lot of soul searching to realize it’s not my fault. It is the fault of a poorly planned system.”

Even starter homes, which are traditionally smaller and more affordable options for young families and other first-time home buyers, are becoming increasingly expensive.

These days, the typical starter home is worth at least $1 million in 237 cities, the most ever, according to new findings released by Zillow. Five years ago, only 84 cities met these criteria.]

Zillow defines a starter home as one in the lowest third of home values ​​in a given region.