Affordable: House Payments 40% Below 2006 Levels

An interesting headline courtesy of Housingwire this week in Monthly mortgage payment almost 40% cheaper than 2006. Here is an excerpt:

Housing affordability improved dramatically because of declines in both prices and mortgage interest rates, according to David Stiff, chief economist at Fiserv.

"The monthly mortgage payment for a median-priced single-family home is now $700, compared to $1,140 in 2006 — a decline of nearly 40%," he said in comments on the latest release from Fiserv.

Even more interesting is this snippet:

Stiff said national purchase mortgage payments now account for only 13% of monthly median family income, down from 23% in the first quarter of 2006, and the lowest percentage since 1971.

That should give us some historical perspective.  How low can house payments go?  Not much more in my opinion.  The only scenarios that I foresee pushing house prices meaningfully lower would be a pandemic or a Zombie Apocalypse.