Dive Brief:

• Millennials and other would-be homeowners have been waiting for wages to rise so they can start saving for down payments and buy their first homes. A Thursday report from RealtyTrac confirmed that it has happened: Wages spiked by 1.3% between 2012 and 2014. Yet the anticipated surge in homeownership didn’t follow.

• The rub: Home prices rose 13 times faster than wages. During those two years, median home prices rose 17.3% in 76% of U.S. housing markets, RealtyTrac said.

• The likely result is a continued reluctance of first-time buyers to enter the housing market. “While the time to purchase is now for home buyers to take advantage of all-time low interest rates, continued stress on home affordability … shall leave many missing this prime-time opportunity [for] home ownership,” Cincinnati Realtor Michael Mahon said in a RealtyTrac press release.

Dive Insight:

Blame the investors, RealtyTrac Vice President Daren Blomquist said in the release. Home prices have grown in response to foreign and U.S. investors who pay cash—more of it than the traditional buyer could typically afford—for property that they lease to tenants for high monthly rents, he said.

“Eventually, however, those traditional buyers will need to play a bigger role in the housing market for the recovery to maintain its momentum,” Blomquist said.