Wages aren’t keeping pace with home-price growth, and it’s putting a dent in the housing market

A good real estate agent might tell you that the general rule of thumb when buying a home is to follow a price-to-income ratio of 2.6, meaning that if you can afford the price of the home on 2.6 years’ worth of household income, it can be considered affordable. But for homebuyers in most parts of the country, that 2.6 threshold is far out of reach, according to a recent study by Clever Real Estate.