Housing affordability is so stretched that fewer than 3% of renters can afford to buy in some markets

Welcome to Fast Company Daily, our daily newsletter on LinkedIn, featuring a free article selected each day by our editors as well as a roundup of great advice on careers, hiring, innovation, and technology.

Visit fastcompany.com for our top stories and breaking news. First time seeing this? Please subscribe.

• Hoping the FTC will finally allow them to merge, grocery giants Kroger and Albertsons are planning to divest and sell 579 stores in 18 states and D.C.
• Even Amtrak was surprised by the instant popularity of its new Chicago-Twin Cities route.
• Donald Trump threatens to jail Mark Zuckerberg in a Truth Social rant.
• Arc’teryx’s striking new products were designed with Indigenous artists.

If you happened to be waiting for a flight at JFK Terminal 4 on May 23, chances are you bumped into the comedian Howie Mandel. Not in person, of course. Mandel is averse to germs and doesn’t like to fly. But rather in Proto, a life-size hologram machine with the ability to “beam” anyone or anything inside of it.

At noon, Mandel appeared. He was beaming in live from Van Nuys, California, from a showroom of the holographic communication company Proto. “This is how a germaphobe comes to New York,” he told me through the Proto Epic—a towering white box that costs $65,000. “This is how I’d like to live the rest of my life.”

Proto uses a 3D display booth to project a 2D image of a person to create a realistic holographic representation. Its device is part of a bigger movement to bring lifelike displays into the real world.

Read the full story on Fast Company Premium.

A Fast Company Premium subscription offers readers full access to subscriber-only stories including exclusive reporting and trend analysis on technology, business innovation, future of work, and design.

Get the details and subscribe here.

Housing affordability is so stretched that fewer than 3% of renters can afford to buy in some markets

By Lance Lambert

Want more stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the free, daily ResiClub newsletter.

Around 52.3 million of the 134 million families in the United States reside in a home they don’t own. Although some families choose to rent, many can’t afford to buy a home where they live. Among those renter households, only 7.9 million, or 15.1%, can afford to buy an average-priced home in their local market, given current mortgage rates, home prices, and incomes, according to a recent analysis by Zillow economists.

ResiClub reached out to Zillow to get the housing affordability analysis on a regional level. Among the 50 largest metro area housing markets, these 5 have the lowest percentage of non-homeowner households who can afford to buy the average-priced home in their market. Four of the top five cities are located in California.  

1. San Diego (2.6%)
2. San Jose (2.7%)
3. Los Angeles (2.8%)
4. San Francisco (3.7%)
5. Salt Lake City (3.8%)

On the other end of the spectrum, these five markets have the highest percentage of non-homeowner households who can afford to buy the average-priced home in their market: 

1. Pittsburgh (25.6%)
2. Detroit (23.1%)
3. St. Louis (22.6%)
4. Oklahoma City (22.5%)
5. Cleveland (22.4%)

Click here to view an interactive version of the map below.

"While roughly 7.9 million [non-homeowner] families are income mortgage-ready across the country, there is substantial variation across metropolitan areas. The share of mortgage-ready families varies from 25.6% in Pittsburgh to just 2.6% in San Diego," write Zillow economists in the report. They add: "The fact that the majority of families don’t have the income necessary to comfortably afford the typical monthly mortgage cost in their local market suggests that removing roadblocks to building more affordable housing would have the most significant impact on improving access to home ownership."

Follow us on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Threads, Facebook, WhatsApp, TikTok.