[link to www.dallasnews.com (secure)]

Mortgage payments in Dallas-Fort Worth are taking a bigger chunk out of each paycheck than they have in a decade, according to a new study, and rents are even worse.

Metro residents are now spending at least 16.5 percent of their median annual incomes — around $63,000 — to pay the mortgage, according to a new study by real estate site Zillow.

Nationwide, the average homeowner spends 17.1 percent of their income for such payments — homeowners in Los Angeles (44.9 percent) and San Francisco (43.9 percent) metro areas are the worst off.

The share of income eaten up by mortgage payments hasn't been this high since 2007, when it was at 16.7 percent. At that time, interest rates and mortgage costs were going the opposite direction, plummeting from their zeniths in the 1970s and 1980s, when mortgages in Dallas cost more than 60 percent of the median income.

Home prices in Dallas have been on a tear, with the median price for a pre-owned home in North Texas hitting a record-high of $266,500 in May.

Mortgages only tell part of the story, but they're key factors in whether or not people decide to buy and at what price point.

"There're two factors at play," said Sarah Mikhitarian, senior economist at Zillow. "The first is that home values are rising — people are financing a larger dollar amount of their homes, and in combination with that, the past few years we've had these historically low interest rates, but now those rates are increasing at a pretty steady pace, you're feeling the appreciation more."

So while home prices have been climbing for years, low interest rates and easy access to mortgages and other loans have softened the impact. But not for much longer.

"Many economists think interest rates will be in the 5 percent range by end of year, and 5-6 percent will probably make buyers re-evaluate buying a home or put them at a lower price point," Mikhitarian said.

Rents, meanwhile, have risen gradually for years, the Zillow study says.