The average annual salary for a full-time worker in the U.S. reached a record high in November, soaring to $69,181, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reports. That marks a 3.4% increase from a year ago.
Higher salaries, along with low mortgage rates, may help give the housing market a boost. The economy is performing strongly, with more than 2 million jobs created in the past year, Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of REALTORS®, said when NAR released its November existing-home sales report.
“We have seen a strong positive trend in real median annual household income over the past several years, which is encouraging,” says Gordon Green of Sentier Research. “But the course of inflation over the coming months and years will be critical.”
The unemployment rate was 3.5% in November. At NAR’s first-ever Real Estate Forecast Summit earlier this month, housing industry economists forecasted unemployment to rise slightly to 3.9%. That is still well below the 5% level the economists consider “full employment.”
Source: magazine.realtor
