National housing affordability remained near historic highs through the first quarter, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index.
Overall, 73.7% of new and existing homes sold from the beginning of 2013 through the end of March were affordable to families earning the U.S. median income of $64,400. However, this figure is down slightly from the 74.9% of affordable homes that sold during the same time period last year.
Since the end of 2008, the HOI has not fallen below 70.
“Thanks to very favorable mortgage rates and prices, housing affordability has remained quite high over the past four years,” said
For the third consecutive quarter, the most affordable housing market nationwide is Ogden-Clearfield, Utah. There, 93.4% of all new and existing homes sold in the 1Q13 were affordable to families earning the area's median income of $70,800, essentially unchanged from the 93.7% of homes affordable to median income earners at yearend 2012.
Other major U.S. housing markets at the top of the affordability chart in the first quarter included Indianapolis-Carmel, Ind.; Lakeland-Winter Haven, Fla.; Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio-Pa.; and the two New York metros of Syracuse and Albany-Schenectady-Troy tied for the fifth position.
Meanwhile, San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City retained its position as the least affordable major market for the second straight quarter where just 28.9% of homes sold in the first quarter were affordable to families earning the area's median income of $102,000.
Additional notable cities that made the bottom of HOI’s affordability chart were New York-White Plains-Wayne, N.Y.-N.J., and the California metros of Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, in that order.
“The bottom line is that, for consumers who can qualify for a mortgage at today's attractive rates, the majority of homes being sold remain within their grasp in markets nationwide,” said NAHB chief economist David Crowe.
