NYC Homes Harder To Afford: 7% mortgages push entry-level costs beyond incomes

New York’s housing market is becoming an increasingly difficult proposition for households trying to buy their first home, with elevated property prices and mortgage rates above 7% combining to push entry-level affordability further out of reach.A new analysis by personal-finance company Achieve, cited by New York Post, places the New York metropolitan area as the fifth-hardest market in the US for getting on the property ladder. An entry-level home in the metro costs about $489,359, while the median household income is $99,155.Based on a 10% down payment and the assumption that mortgage payments should account for no more than 30% of gross income, Achieve calculated that a household would need to earn about $114,380 a year to comfortably afford an entry-level property — roughly 15.4% more than the typical household earns.Mortgage rates rise as home supply remains tightThe affordability squeeze comes as the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate has climbed…