Robert Brokamp

Despite the recent slowdown in home prices, many Americans still can't afford a house, which brings us to our number of the week, and it is 75%.

That's a percentage of homes on the market that are unaffordable to the average American household.

According to a bank rate analysis, a family would need an annual income of $113,000 to afford a $430,000 median-priced home.

Unfortunately, median household income is closer to $80,000.

Middle-income households can afford at least 30% of the listings in only 11 of the nation's 34 largest metro areas.

This level of unaffordability is due to high home prices, wage growth that is not kept up with those prices, higher mortgage rates, and not enough homes.

According to Bankrate, the U.S.

faces a housing deficit of about 4.7 million houses.

Up next, two fools getting close to retirement.

Talk about when they'll actually retire when Motley Fool Money continues.

After saving for retirement for decades, you'll actually get to a point when you realize, hey, I could retire soon.

I'm in that situation, as is my next guest, pool contributor Dan Kaplinger.

So for this episode, Dan and I are going to have a conversation about how we're approaching the decision about when to retire.

Dan, welcome back to Motley Fool Money.

Hey, thanks for having me, bro.

We have a lot in common.

We're both former financial planners, both have been associated with The Fool for more than 25 years.

We're in our mid to late 50s, we have kids in college, and we both are getting to the point where we could retire soon, though likely I probably should work for a few more years just to be safe.

What's your situation and how are you approaching the decision about when you'll actually pull the plug?

From the financial standpoint, how are you analyzing your situation?