Housing Remains Unaffordable in 18% of Markets: RealtyTrac

Housing markets were less affordable than their historic norms in 18% of counties across the country, according to the Home Affordability Index for the second quarter from RealtyTrac.

That figure is worse than in the first quarter, when only 5% of counties were less affordable than their historically normal levels, but better than a year ago when the figure stood at 20%.

To assess affordability, RealtyTrac analyzed median home prices and average wage data for 417 counties with a combined population of 210 million.

"Although nearly one in five U.S. housing markets was not affordable by historic standards in the second quarter, the good news is that affordability is improving compared to a year ago in the majority of markets thanks to a combination of slowing home price appreciation and accelerating wage growth, along with falling interest rates," said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at RealtyTrac, in a news release Thursday.

Wage growth outpaced home price growth in 55% of the counties studied, including Miami-Dade County, Fla., and Kings County, N.Y., which comprises Brooklyn. Counties where home prices rose faster than wages include Los Angeles County, Cook County, Ill., in the Chicago metro area, Harris County, Texas, in the Houston metro area and Maricopa County, Ariz., in the Phoenix metro area.

Before the second quarter, home prices had grown faster than wages in more than half of the counties studied for 16 consecutive quarters.

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