The metropolitan area encompassing Indianapolis-Carmel, Ind.,
has retained the title of most affordable major U.S. housing market for an
eighth consecutive time, according to the National Association of Home
Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) for the second quarter of
2007. About 87 percent of new and existing homes in this area that were sold
during the second quarter of this year were affordable to families earning the
area’s median household income of $63,800.
Also near the top of the list for
affordable major metros in the second quarter were Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn,
Mich.; Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio-Pa.; Buffalo-Niagara Falls, N.Y.; and
Grand Rapids-Wyoming, Mich., respectively.
“The latest HOI indicates that 43.1
percent of new and existing homes that were sold in the United States during
this year’s second quarter were affordable to families earning the national
median income,” said NAHB PresidentBrian Catalde.
“This reflects a marginal decline from the 43.9 percent of homes sold that were
affordable to such buyers in the first quarter. However, it’s up substantially
from the 40.6 percent of homes that were affordable to median income-earners
when higher home prices and mortgage rates were in effect during the second
quarter of 2006.”
“The data shows that housing
affordability generally remains a serious issue, even though national average
house prices are down from their 2005 highs,” added NAHB Chief EconomistDavid Seiders. “Moreover, the abrupt tightening of
lending standards in the subprime sector - a trend that is now bleeding into
other sectors of the mortgage market - is having serious impacts on the ability
of many families to purchase homes.”
Midwestern metros also dominated the
list of the most affordable smaller housing markets (defined as those with
fewer than 500,000 people). Kokomo, Ind., held the top of that list, followed
by Bay City, Mich.; Lansing-East Lansing, Mich.; Mansfield, Ohio; and
Saginaw-Saginaw Township North, Mich., in that order.
Maintaining its spot at the bottom of
the affordability scale for an eleventh consecutive quarter was Los
Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, Calif., where just 3 percent of homes sold in the
second three months of this year were affordable to families earning the
metro’s median household income of $61,700. As usual, Los Angeles shared the
bottom of the affordability scale with other major California metros, including
Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine as the second least affordable, San Francisco-San
Mateo-Redwood City as the third least affordable and Modesto as the fifth least
affordable large housing markets in the nation.
As the fourth least affordable major
metro, New York-White Plains-Wayne, N.Y.-N.J. was the only non-California
location within the bottom five.
Continuing the trend, all five of the
least affordable small cities (populations under 500,000) were located in
California during the second quarter, with Salinas at the very bottom of the
chart followed by Merced, Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Goleta, San Luis
Obispo-Paso Robles, and Napa, respectively.
Visitwww.nahb.org/hoifor tables, historic data and details.