How much house can you get for $1,000 a month? On one level, that should be a simple question of supply and demand. But in a country where a majority of people live in owner-occupied housing, it also has a lot to do in practice with how big a loan you can get for a $1,000 a month payment—an issue that’s driven by prevailing interest rates. Kathy Orton’s got this chart from McEnerney Associates showing that in the DC area at least the purchasing power of that $1,000 monthly payment has skyrocketed.
It’s a bit unfortunate that this has been given a truncated y-axis for emphasis since the point would hold even with a fairer chart.
