Home Affordability Rankings Released – Portland # 18 in West

December 5th, 2005

In numbers for the 3rd quarter 2005 released by the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo, Portland ranks as the 18th most affordable city in the western region, and 90th (out of 161) across the U.S. In the survey, 50% of homes sold in the Portland area were affordable by residents earning the area’s median income of $65,900.

Salem, Corvallis and Eugene ranked as the 3rd, 9th, and 16th most affordable cities in the West. Pueblo took top honors in the West, and Colorado cities took 6 of the top 11 positions on the West’s affordability list, while Seattle registered at 26th.

According to the study,

Challenged by steadily rising home prices, overall housing affordability across the United States fell for the third consecutive quarter to its lowest level since the HOI* was first reported in 1992, dipping 2.7 points to 43.2 on the HOI. This means that just over 43 percent of all new and existing homes sold in the country during the third quarter were affordable to median-income families. The decline was mostly attributable to a 5 percent gain in the average price of homes sold in the third quarter versus the second quarter.

The nation’s most affordable communities include Indianapolis, Detroit, Youngstown PA, and Buffalo-Niagra NY. As expected, California dominated the ‘least affordable’ category with 4 of the 5 most-expensive communities, including Los Angeles, Santa Ana/Irvine/Anaheim, San Diego, and Stockton. Los Angeles’ $495,000 median sales prices made just 2.4% of homes sold affordable to residents making the median income of $54,500.

Please visit the National Association of Homebuilders for tables, historic data and details.

*The NAHB/Wells Fargo HOI is a measure of the percentage of homes sold in a given area that are affordable to families earning that area’s median income during a specific quarter.

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Entry Filed under: General