Chapter 4 of "The Great Housing Hijack"

My Favorite Quotes

“In Australia, the average rent-to-disposable-income ratio for renter households in the private market in 1993… was 20 per cent. In 2023, it was 20 per cent.”

“In the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer spending survey shows that renter households have spent a stable 22 per cent of after-tax income on rent since 1986.”

“... housing rents track renter incomes as a nation gets wealthier, staying around 20 per cent of income in Australia... housing is a ‘normal good’.” [As income increases we spend more of our income on luxury goods, less on inferior goods, and about the same percentage on normal goods.] 

“The ‘normal’ rental equilibrium means that regardless of what happens to the stock of housing… we… spend roughly the same 20 percent share of income on housing.”

“Since an equilibrium is a market outcome… it is still the case that high-income renter households spend less than this share on rent, while low-income renters typically spend more than 30 per cent of their income on rent.”

“... the fact that rents rise with incomes over time is a reason that homeownership has such large long-term benefits..”

Find your favorite quotes. Book available at https://www.amazon.com/Great-Housing-Hijack-keeping-Australia/dp/176147085X