The least affordable housing market in the third quarter was Los Angeles, which is the first housing market to supplant San Francisco atop the âleast affordableâ list for almost five years, according to the National Association of Home Builders Housing Opportunity Index.
Just 9.1 percent of homes sold in Los Angeles during the third quarter were affordable to families earning the area median income of $64,300.
Across the country, 58.3 percent of new and existing homes were affordable to families earning the U.S. median income of $68,000. This is down from 59.4 percent in the second quarter.
"Solid economic growth, along with ongoing quarterly job gains and rising household formations, are fueling housing demand," said NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz in a statement. "Tight inventories and a forecast of rising mortgage interest rates through 2018 will keep home prices on a gradual upward path and slowly lessen housing affordability in the quarters ahead."
The most affordable housing market in the country was Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio-Pa., where 90.1 percent of new and existing homes were affordable to families earning the median income of $54,600.
