My Real Estate Blog

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index for the fourth quarter 2010, reveals that 73.9% of all new and existing homes sold were affordable to families earning the national median income of $64,400.

That record-setting level beat the last record high of 72.5% set during the first quarter of 2009. It was also the eighth consecutive quarter that the index has been above 70%. Until 2009, the HOI rarely topped 65% and never reached 70%.

While this is good news for consumers, both home buyers and builders continue to confront extremely tight credit conditions, and this remains a significant issue for many potential home sales.

Where the bargains are:

With 93.5% of all homes sold affordable to households earning the area's median family income, the Indianapolis-Carmel, IN area was the nation's most affordable large housing market.

Also ranking near the top of the most affordable major metro housing markets were Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA; Syracuse, NY; Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, MI; and Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, MI.

Where the bargains aren't:

The least affordable major markets were New York-White Plains-Wayne, NY-NJ. In New York, only 25.5% of all homes sold during the quarter were affordable to those earning the area's median income of $65,600.

Other major metro areas near the bottom of the affordability index were in California -- San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City; Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale; and Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, as well as and Honolulu, HI.