## HOUSING COSTS MOUNT

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### Price trends and magnitude
- Over the past decade, the cost of a home across the OECD’s mostly high-income countries has risen by 37 percent in real terms, according to the OECD’s analytical house price indicators.
- Prices are up 16 percent relative to incomes, on average.
- Home prices have increased in every OECD country except three over the past decade, rising by more than a third on average and by over 50 percent in the US alone.
- Real house price index reference: 2015 = 100 (OECD chart series shown for selected economies including Colombia, Finland, Iceland, Portugal, Hungary, Korea, Italy, United States, OECD).

### Generational concerns and survey evidence
- Sixty percent of OECD survey respondents aged 18–39 said they worried about housing affordability, compared with 38 percent of those aged 55–64 (OECD Risks that Matter Survey 2022).
- Of people aged 18 to 29, 60 percent reported being somewhat or very concerned about securing adequate housing.

### Homeownership patterns and cross-country contrasts
- Homeownership is highest in Eastern Europe’s former communist countries, with 94 percent of Romanians owning their home outright.
- By contrast, 5 percent of people in Switzerland own their home outright.
- On average across the OECD countries tracked, 16 percent of people rent from private landlords (OECD Affordable Housing Database).

### Rent and mortgage distress among the poorest
- In Colombia, 82 percent of renters in the lowest income quintile hand over more than 40 percent of their income to private landlords; Colombia’s rental market is also one of the least regulated.
- Higher interest rates are increasing burdens on homeowners with outstanding mortgages: in Colombia and Luxembourg, more than half of the poorest who own a home spend at least 40 percent of their income on repayment.
- OECD-wide indicators show the percent of low-income households in selected countries spending more than 40 percent of disposable income on mortgage and rent, by tenancy status (2022 or latest year), with separate series for Rent (private), Rent (subsidized), and Owner with mortgage.

### Key data sources cited in the content
- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Affordable Housing Database.
- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Risks that Matter Survey 2022.

*Source: Picture This, F&D, DECEMBER 2024 (excerpts from OECD data and surveys as presented).*

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/fandd/article/2024/12/pt.pdf_