Couple earning $200,000 a year in key state say they can’t afford a house or a baby — and reveal what that means for their vote in November

A couple earning $200,000 a year can’t afford to buy a home in Nevada as fierce competition and soaring prices continue to push millennials out — and it could affect the presidential election in the key state.

Kashmir Martin, 31, and her husband are almost ready to give up on their dream of owning a home and have decided to delay having a baby until they can, they told NBC News.

Martin alone earns $140,000 a year working as an accounting manager for a mining company, and her husband earns about $65,000 as an audio technician. Their budget for a house is $550,000.

“On paper, I’m making more money, I’m doing better,” she told the outlet. “But I feel less financially secure than I did in 2015, when I was a freshman in accounting and a college major.”

They’ve been looking for years to move into a home in the Old Northwest or Old Southwest neighborhoods of Reno, Nevada, but they can’t find options for less than $3,000 a month, and they may need major renovations they can’t afford.

In Washoe County, single-family home prices have increased 46% since 2019, averaging just under $600,000, according to the county assessor’s office.

Those struggling to find affordable housing are turning to Democratic and third-party presidential candidates, who promote housing policies.

Martin and her husband currently live in a townhouse that costs $2,300 a month. If she were to purchase a property of similar value, she estimates it could cost her $3,700 a month in mortgage payments.

The stress of buying a home led her to support union-friendly presidential candidates, such as presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, who didn’t eat grapes until she was 20 to support boycotts in her home state of California.

Martin prefers these candidates because she believes it will help raise wages, which will allow more people to afford housing.

“At the federal level, anything that can help raise wages and give people good, well-paying jobs is going to help,” she said. “I just don’t foresee prices going down.”

The current vice president has advocated for more affordable housing and a tax credit for first-time buyers. She has also advocated for a rent cap.

Republican candidate Donald Trump has said he would reduce housing costs by encouraging new housing construction in America’s suburbs, where land is cheaper.

“Working class people are being priced out of the housing market, rents are skyrocketing and there’s a lot of abuse that’s going on unchecked,” Nevada Culinary Workers Union Secretary Ted Pappageorge told NBC News.

“I think the political class is not attacking this problem with the determination that they should have. We see some things from the Democrats on housing, but they need to be much more aggressive.”

Philip Chavez recently bought a house for $470,000, which allows him to pay $3,700 a month. He spends about half his salary on his mortgage and has to stretch the rest of his budget to support his family.

“I’m really praying that rates come down so I can try to refinance quickly, because it’s a big payment,” he told NBC News. “It’ll be a little bit lean here and there, but, you know, I’ll eat less or something. We’ll figure it out.”

He doesn’t believe the Republican Party will improve the economy. He does, however, have a personal connection to Harris, who participated in the 2019 UAW picket with him and his colleagues.

“If we want to have a country like it is today or improve it, we’re not going to do it by voting Republican,” he said. “Trickle-down economics doesn’t work because it relies on one benevolent person making it flow, and that’s not the world we live in.”

Housing is a major issue in Reno, which needs 21,000 more affordable homes to meet demand in 2022, according to state housing reports. They will add 4,300 more homes over the next seven years.

The number of homeless people has increased by four percent this year and more than 3,000 low-income residents are on a waiting list for federally funded housing vouchers, NBC News reported.

The Northern Nevada Food Bank has also seen its client base increase as high housing prices and the job market make it difficult for Americans to make ends meet. It is serving 15% more people than last year and nearly 35% more in the past two years, NBC News reported.

“People have to pay their rent, and so they’re not buying as much food or they don’t have money to buy food, and that’s what we see a lot,” Jocelyn Lantrip, the food bank’s director of marketing and communications, told NBC News.

Add to that the fact that many California residents have jumped ship and moved to the Reno area, bringing cash offers and higher salaries, which also drives up prices significantly, leaving people like Martin unable to afford even his childhood home.

“I’ve done everything I thought I needed to do to be more successful than my parents,” she told NBC News. “But I feel like I’m not making any progress. I’m actually a little behind.”

Her parents, who worked as teachers and casino workers, bought the house decades ago, but with the 7.5 percent interest rate Martin is being offered, she can’t afford it, even on her $140,000 salary.

The average monthly mortgage rate in the county is about $3,000 per month, nearly double since 2019. To afford a home — with a 20% down payment — a household would have to earn more than $100,000 per year.

According to NBC News, the median household income is just $80,000.

And it’s not just in Reno that new buyers are having trouble settling in. Owning a home has become nearly impossible for many Americans across the country — and the situation isn’t getting better anytime soon, according to the NBC News Home Buyers Index.

According to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index, home prices have increased by 6.4% over the past year. The cities most affected are San Diego, Chicago and Detroit.

Renters are also struggling, with many spending more than 30% of their income on rent and utilities, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.