Most Americans wont be able to afford a house until 2031 and its even worse if youre in Long Island

America’s housing affordability crisis could drag on for at least another five years — and for New Yorkers, the wait could stretch well beyond a decade.Housing costs nationwide could return to their 2018 levels relative to household income by 2031, according to a new Redfin analysis — but buyers in New York City, Long Island and roughly half of the major metropolitan areas studied could face another decade of financial pain.That optimistic national scenario assumes mortgage rates fall to 6% while annual home-price growth holds steady at 2.1%.If rates remain around 7.5% but home prices stop rising, affordability could recover by April 2032 instead.And in an even rosier — though unlikely — scenario, where rates drop to 6% and prices flatten, housing costs could return to their pre-pandemic benchmark by February 2029.But the picture is considerably bleaker in the Northeast and Midwest, where stubbornly rising home prices continue to outpace wage growth.Long Island is feeling the squeeze particularly hard.Nassau County, ranked the nation’s strongest seller’s market by Redfin, has seen home prices climb 5.3% over the past year, outpacing projected annual income growth of 3.6%.That’s a 1.7-percentage-point gap between home-price appreciation and expected income gains, leaving prospective buyers struggling to keep up in an already fiercely competitive market — even if mortgage rates fall to 6%.That imbalance means affordability could take at least 10 years to return to 2018 levels, even if mortgage rates fall to 6%.New York City, Newark, New Brunswick and Philadelphia face similarly lengthy recoveries, along with Chicago, Boston and several other major markets.Chicago home prices, for example, have surged 5.5% year over year, compared with projected annual income growth of 3.9%.“It may seem counterintuitive that housing costs could return to normal sooner in the country’s most expensive markets than in a place like Chicago or Philly, but it comes down...