Americans now need to spend 43% of their income to afford a home as mortgage rates surge to a 23-year high

• Americans need to spend nearly half of their income to afford a home as mortgage rates soar, a market expert said. 
• "US housing affordability is worse today than the peak of the last housing bubble," Charlie Bilello said. 
• The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage jumped this week to a 23-year high of 7.48%, per Mortgage News Daily. 

Americans now need to spend as much as 43% of their income to afford a home, with mortgage rates surging to their highest levels since 2000.

The average rate on 30-year fixed mortgages jumped this week to the highest level since 2000, approaching 7.50%, according to Mortgage News Daily. The rate was only about 3.2% at the start of 2022.