The discussion at the time
This article preserves commentary published on September 22, 2021. It is not a current reading of prices, and it is not a recommendation to buy or to wait.
Coverage then concentrated on whether a home purchase was financially feasible. The commentary treated affordability as a question of cost relative to income and to earlier periods, rather than as a conclusion that buying had become impossible.
Payments and the longer record
The commentary reported that many buyers were committing about 20 percent of income to a monthly mortgage payment, and described that share as within the 28 percent guideline often associated with Freddie Mac.
It also noted that prices had risen, and that homes were less affordable than at any point since the housing downturn of roughly fifteen years earlier. Set against 1975 through 2005, the same commentary described costs as lower than in that earlier span.
Some buyers still stepped back. They were uneasy that others had purchased at a lower price the year before.