WASHINGTON -- The metropolitan areas encompassing Indianapolis-Carmel, IN, and Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH, tied for the title of most affordable major U.S. housing market in this year's first quarter, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI), released June 28. Also near the top of the list for affordable major metros in the first quarter was Dayton, OH, followed by Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, MI, and Grand Rapids-Wyoming, MI, respectively. Meanwhile, lower home prices and mortgage interest rates helped boost housing affordability across the nation in the first three months of this year.
“The latest HOI shows that about 44% of new and existing homes that were sold in the United States during this year’s first quarter were affordable to families earning the national median income,” said NAHB President Brian Catalde, a homebuilder from El Segundo, CA. “This is up from 41.6% of homes sold in the final quarter of 2006, and is likely the result of lower house prices as well as the very favorable financing conditions that existed at the beginning of this year.”
Once again at the bottom of the affordability scale was Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA, where just 3% of homes sold in the first quarter were affordable to families earning the metro's median household income of $61,700.
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